ON '' 
BECOMING 
BUND 




L.IBRARV C>c OOlSJORESa 
fO^EADINO ROOivi FOR THE BL.INO 




Class iiV>.S43 

Book .34 g 



CopyrightN^. 



CORfRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



ON BECOMING BLIND 



-y'^yi^ 



ON BECOMING BLIND 

ADVICE FOR THE USE OF PERSONS 
LOSING THEIR SIGHT 

BY 
DR. :^MILE JAVAL 

Honorary Director of the Ophthalmic Laboratory of the 

J^cole des Hautes Etudes 

Member of the Academy of Medicine 

TRANSLATED BY 

CARROLL E. EDSON, A.M., M.D. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
1905 

All rights reserved 



LJBMARY of OONGHtSS 
Two Copies Seceiveu 

I FEB 23 1905 

L !^1'- 



.^^ 

X^ 'V 



:H^ 



COPTEIGHT, 1905, 

By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1905. 



Nortoooti i3«8S 

J. S. Cushing & Co. —Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE 

There is so much of help and suggestion 
in Dr. Javal's httle volume that it has been 
a labor of love to translate it, in the hope 
that it may bring this usefulness within the 
reach of those afflicted who cannot read the 
original. It has not been possible to con- 
vey all the charm of style of Dr. Javal's 
text, and somehow the pathos between the 
lines is lost in the translation. The appen- 
dix on the means of accelerating reading 
and writing has not been rendered into 
Enghsh, as it dealt with phonography of 
the French language only. I have added 
also to the last chapter a list of similar 
useful addresses in this country. 

Denver, Colorado, 
September 20, 1904=. 



INTRODUCTION 

Haying lost my sight suddenly at a 
relatively late age (I had just entered my 
sixty-second year), one of my first cares 
was to inquire what might be done to live 
with the least possible evil with my in- 
firmity. Great was my surprise to find 
nowhere any collection of advice on this 
matter. In short, the attention of the 
friends of the blind, or typhlophiles, has 
been concentrated either on the bringing 
up and instruction of the blind young or 
upon charity organization for the blind 
poor. 

What further explains the lack of such 
publications as I wished is, that the sudden 
and complete loss of sight is a relatively 
infrequent misfortune. Adults whose vision 
fails little by little gradually accustom them- 

vii 



viii INTRODUCTION 

selves to withdraw more or less completely 
from affairs. Some soon resign themselves 
to passing their life in the corner and to 
drop out of the world of the living ; others, 
more energetic, but much less numerous, 
continue, as far as possible, their former 
mode of life with the aid of others' eyes. 
Without going back to Homer, we have 
seen Huber, become blind at the age of 
twenty-seven, assisted by a faithful servant, 
continue the work of Eeaumur on the 
habits of bees ; Augustin Thierry, blind at 
thirty, not abandon his historical researches, 
but dictate his " Recits des temps merovin- 
giens " ; Milton, losing his sight at fifty, 
dictate to his daughter his celebrated poem 
of "Paradise Lost"; Eodenbach play an 
important part in the Belgian parliament; 
Fawcett, blinded at twenty-five, change, 
thanks first to a remarkable family col- 
laboration, his career of a lawyer for that 
of a writer, win an election to the House of 
Commons, and become postmaster-general. 
These examples, and others less illustrious, 
suffice to prove that blindness, seizing a 



INTRODUCTION ix 

man in full activity, does not condemn him 
to inactivity, especially if, the loss of sight 
being gradual, he can likewise accommodate 
himself little by little to the new condition 
set him. 

It is by long experience that the persons 
who live with a blinded one learn to spare 
him difFicnlties with a devotion often ad- 
mirable, a devotion whose burden I would 
like to help lessen. 

I set forth in the pages which follow the 
results of my experience and researches ; 
I ask the indulgence of competent persons, 
for I am only a parvenu in blindness. 

The cost will prevent many of my com- 
panions in misfortune from profiting by a 
large part of my advice. As my work will 
obviously not be read by the blind, but by 
their relatives, nothing obliges these to ac- 
quaint them with all the chapters ; each 
will take what he can. 1 write for the 
family of the blind ; it is for them to spare 
their protege the regret of being unable to 
procure costly helps, such as the tandem- 
tricycle or the phonograph. 



X INTRODUCTION 

It is perhaps more especially to my oculist 
confreres that it will fall to cull from this 
volume the advice which they may use to 
the profit of their unfortunate patients. I 
have met more than one blind man who 
spoke in very bitter terms of the care he 
received in the last period of his malady. 

I therefore beg my confreres to resist the 
tendency — they call it humane and I call 
it barbarous — to leave these patients in 
hope while amusing them with injections 
of strychnine, sittings of electricity, or use- 
less internal treatments, the employment of 
which, even if given gratuitously, does not 
increase the reputation of him who makes 
use of them. To give, by a placebo treat- 
ment, consolation to an incurable, is to 
prevent him from arranging his life in an- 
ticipation of the fatal outcome. It seems 
to me more humane to do for the blind 
what I wish had been done for me, and to 
prepare them little by little for their fate. 
If, for example, you foresee that the pa- 
tient will one day be forced to resort to 
Braille writing, is it not a duty to use the 



INTRODUCTION xi 

little sight left him to teach him the first 
elements of this process ? 

More particularly intended to serve men 
of the liberal professions who have just 
made the " leap in the dark/' the pages 
which follow would never have been writ- 
ten if this misfortune had not befallen me, 
and if, as I hope, they serve to render 
easier some ill fortune like mine, fate will 
have given me one precious consolation. 

6 Boulevard Latour-Maubourg, 
Paris, June, 1903. 





CONTENTS 




OHAFTEB 




PAGB 


I. 


Bondage and Freedom 


1 


II. 


Replacing Sight by the Other Senses 


6 


III. 


Household Occupations 


16 


IV. 


Professional Occupations . 


20 


V. 


Neatness, Hygiene, Health 


31 


VI. 


Dwelling 


38 


VII. 


Meals 


. 42 


VIIL 


Watches and Clocks . 


. 47 


IX. 


Walking in Town and Country 


50 


X. 


Tandem Tricycle .... 


, 59 


XI. 


Travelling 


67 


XII. 


Outside Associations . 


. 73 


XIII. 


Reading Aloud .... 


. 79 


XIV. 


Handwriting 


. 85 


XV. 


Typewriting and Phonography . 


92 


XVI. 


Reading and Writing Braille . 


96 


xvn. 


Correspondence with Persons who 


""^ 




See 


120 



xiv 


CONTENTS 




CHAPTER 




PAGE 


XVIII. 


Maps, Plans, and Sketches 


. 124 


XIX. 


Music ...... 


. 128 


XX. 


Games 


. 130 


XXI. 


Tobacco ..... 


. 132 


XXII. 


Memory and Mnemonics . 


. 134 


XXIII. 


Esperanto 


. 143 


XXIV. 


Marriage . . . 


. 147 


XXV. 


The Sixth Sense 


. 152 


XXVI. 


Psychology of the Blind 


. 170 


XXVII. 
Appendix 
Index 


Useful Addresses 


. 179 
. 182 
. 193 



ON BECOMING BLIND 



oisr BEcoMiwa bl^d 



BONDAGE AND FREEDOM 

"If we ardently desire sight, it is not to enjoy the 
dehght of faces and to distinguish colors, but much more 
to be freed from the thousand restraints which blindness 
throws around us everywhere — in the street, in the 
house, at the table. It is to escape from the dependence 
which, even if friendly, weighs upon us." 

The above lines are by M. Guilbeau, pro- 
fessor at the National Institution for the 
Young Blind and founder of the Valentin 
Hatty Museum, an eminent man whose 
counsels have been of the greatest use 
to me. 

If these valuations are true for those who, 
like M. Guilbeau, lost their sight in child- 
hood, they are very much more so for those 
who during an already long life have had 



2 ON BECOMING BLIND 

the use of their eyes. One of the phases 
of the bondage from which the blind escapes 
with difficulty is the impossibility, in which 
he often finds himself, of controlling by him- 
self the statements of another. If he can- 
not have absolute confidence in the veracity 
of those about him, life becomes intolerable 
for him. Never lie to a blind man, be it 
with the best intent in the world ; because, 
to render him a passing service, you will 
have killed his confidence, and in conse- 
quence his security. 

It is wretched to run to another for the 
most unimportant acts. " Nobody ever un- 
derstands one," said Becque. Each of us 
has always, even as concerns his most inti- 
mate friend, his " secret tribunal " which 
dictates, in daily life, small actions, insig- 
nificant perhaps, but whose changes it is 
not pleasant to have discussed. And if, 
himself, the blind has nothing to hide from 
his relatives, he may wish to keep to him- 
self the confidences of another. 

At first it was impossible for me to keep 
the secret of my correspondence with those 



BONDAGE AND FREEDOM 3 

who had sight ; I have gradually succeeded 
in doing it, and you will see how in 
Chapter XYII. 

In society the bondage of the blind is al- 
most constant ; he does not choose his inter- 
locutor, the other forces himself on him. 
It is impossible to escape from a bore, to 
join a congenial group, or to take aside one 
who, often with discreetness, does not come 
up to rescue him from an unconscionable 
dun. 

For most services, paid help is preferable. 
For example, a paid reader reads what we 
wish, rereads any passage we wish to re- 
member, skips a chapter which does not 
interest us. He spares us his comments. 
If we dictate a letter to him, he does not 
interrupt to give us his advice. But, docile 
slave, he ends sometimes by making himself 
indispensable, and may become, to speak 
truly, the household tyrant, the Cerberus 
who drives off those who shelter him. I 
have known one blind man without a family 
who was, to the time of his death, the slave 
of his secretary and his cook, still happy in 



4 ON BECOMING BLIND 

tke little independence left him of reciprocal 
hatred of these two persons. 

From the time of Antigone, we have seen 
women, daughters of the blind, make entire 
abnegation of themselves. Whatever satis- 
faction they may find in thus immolating 
themselves, if we may admire them, yet it is 
wise to blame them. We ought to tell them 
the sad story of the English poet whose 
sister was his constant companion; when 
she died, he was more helpless than when he 
became blind. Would she not have done 
better to have married and left him some 
nephews ? And that other admirable mother, 
consecrating herself wholly to the education 
of an only daughter, — was she right in 
neglecting other duties ? 

The blind must not abuse such devotion 
by being capricious in the distribution of his 
time. He must put upon himself the re- 
straint of the greatest possible regularity of 
hours ; and every time in this ordered life 
that he wishes to interpose any project, he 
ought to make it known as soon as conceived 
so that every one may plan accordingly. 



BONDAGE AND FREEDOM 5 

All efforts should tend to give the blind 
the maximum of freedom and independence 
compatible with his condition, by providing 
him with the means of doing for himself as 
many things as possible. The more he 
knows how to do alone, the more he will act 
for himself and the more content he will be, 
while less of a care to another. 

One kind of thoughtfulness to which the 
blind is extremely sensitive consists in main- 
taining around him the most perfect and 
scrupulous order, so that he is free to find 
things for himself instead of having to ask 
for them. He should, as far as possible, sort 
his papers for himself, so as never to be at 
the mercy of a particular person when he 
has need to find them again. 

Since the loss of freedom is the worst of 
the consequences of blindness, when one 
loses his sight the first thing to do is to 
hasten to make him familiar with all the 
procedures which allow him to act for him- 
self; and it is the setting forth of these 
means which is the object of the present 
work. 



II 

REPLACING- SIGHT BY THE OTHER SENSES 

According to a widespread opinion, the 
loss of one sense has the effect of increasing 
the acuteness of the others : nothing is more 
false. It is opposed to the theory of sensa- 
tions and contrary to experience to hope, 
for example, that a blind person, by dint of 
practice, will end by hearing a watch farther 
off than he would have heard it at the mo- 
ment he lost his sight. 

This is not to say that the blind does not 
reap a useful benefit — even very useful — 
from certain sensations which escape the 
seer. He learns — and he must learn — 
to bring his attention to bear upon many 
things which, for those who see, are of sec- 
ondary importance or even negligible. For 
example, when I could see, it might wholly 
escape my notice whether a visitor were 
gloved. At present I do not fail to shake 

6 



REPLACING SIGHT BY OTHER SENSES 7 

hands with every arrival, before having him 
sit down. I know immediately if he is 
gloved or not, and the difference of hands 
informs me, when I combine with it the 
voice and the height from which it comes, 
of the sex, the build, and in some measure 
of the age and the social condition, of the 
speaker. The variety of handclasps is in- 
finite, so that I learned, without too great 
surprise, that a person both deaf and blind, 
and who consequently comes into relation 
with another only by the hand, sometimes 
recognizes a handshake after several years' 
interval. The odor helping, I have suc- 
ceeded in promptly turning off ' a beggar 
whose breath was loaded with alcohol. 
There is not brought out any refinement 
of the auditory, tactile, and olfactory senses, 
but greater keenness in the interpretation 
of the information furnished by these senses. 
The blind from birth are past masters in 
this kind of exercise, and I would give 
to my brothers in recent blindness some 
pointers drawn from the experience of their 
predecessors. 



8 ON BECOMING BLIND 

For the blind, hearing is almost the sole 
means of recognizing distant objects. It is 
desirable therefore to avoid useless noises, 
in order to leave more action to the lesser 
noises which reveal what is going on about 
him. A window open upon a paved and 
busy street does not allow him to recognize, 
by the sound of the step, the rustle of 
skirts, etc., who enters the room, to hear 
the clock, to tell what is going on in the 
next room. 

Since no one can tell with exactness 
whence a sound comes, but since this power 
of recognition can be improved by practice, 
for example, in learning to turn the head so 
as to profit by the difference of impression 
made upon the two ears according as one 
or the other is turned towards the origin 
of the sound, it is useful to take a blind 
man often to the theatre, preferably to 
seats in front, near the stage, and to tell 
him the chief movements of the actors. If 
he has a seat at one side, the blind person 
cannot get any idea relative to the move- 
ment of the players. Theatrical represen- 



REPLACING SIGHT BY OTHER SENSES 9 

tations are likewise excellent practice for 
learning to classify voices according to 
their timbre and to note their peculiarities. 

I will say here that to interest the 
blind at a play it is necessary, so far as 
possible, to give him first an idea of the 
piece by a prior analysis, and then, when 
the curtain goes up on each act, to tell him 
the stage settings and the names of the 
persons in the scene. 

To recognize a speaker by his voice is a 
faculty the more important for the blind to 
develop, as he must make use of it in order 
not be too much bewildered in a gathering 
of several persons. 

An experienced blind man can tell, I am 
informed, by the sound of his step whether 
the ground is dry or wet, if he is walking 
near or far from a wall, if he is entering a 
large or small sized room. 

To inform himself by the ear such a blind 
person, as I could cite, knows how to make 
use of sounds which he makes himself, — for 
example, the sound produced when he strikes 
the ground with his cane, or when he makes 



10 ON BECOMING BLIND 

with his lips a little dry, sharp sound like 
that of a kiss. I do not know how far 
adults can make use of these means. 

In every case there is an auditory im- 
pression which improves usefully and rap- 
idly. It is that of the shades of expression 
which betray an involuntarily expressed 
sentiment. Deprived of the evidences which 
the expressions of the face and the involun- 
tary gestures of his interlocutors give, the 
blind is only the more attentive to the into- 
nations ; and he may draw true profit from 
the art of listening, in which he ought to 
try to become an expert. 

Along with hearing, smell may give some 
information about objects which are beyond 
the reach of the blind person's hands. I 
have never seen that there was any advan- 
tage in methodically exercising smell. With- 
out being told, blind men in whom this sense 
is developed use it to recognize a store when 
passing. He who would obtain from smell 
all the information possible ought to refrain 
from smoking and taking . snuff. Tobacco 
destroys smell in a very marked degree. 



REPLACING SIGHT BY OTHER SENSES 11 

Finally, touch, of which no one is wholly 
deprived, is for the blind the most precious 
of his senses ; and it is possible to increase 
by training, not its sensitiveness, but its 
usefulness. 

One who sees, in carrying his finger over 
Braille writing, is unable to feel the arrange- 
ments of the points which a blind person 
recognizes without hesitation. It is not 
that the finger of the seer is less sensitive, 
but because he does not know how to feel. 
This distinction is not a quibble. I will 
give as proof that, having made the mistake 
at first of using only the forefinger of my 
right hand for reading Braille, it is much 
more difficult for me to read with my left 
index finger: and yet, far from being in- 
creased, the sensitiveness of my right index 
finger has been very noticeably diminished 
by the rubbing. Especially when I have 
read much under this finger the points seem 
soft and cottony, while they appear almost 
pricking to the left forefinger. In spite of 
this greater sensitiveness, the left finger is 
much less handy for reading than the right. 



12 ON BECOMINa BLIND 

Other blind persons have noticed the same 
fact. 

The most practised blind reader will not 
always recognize a letter of Braille writing 
when he puts his finger on that letter. The 
points and their respective arrangement are 
perceived easily only through the friction 
which they exert upon the skin of the 
finger, and for this perception to be sharp 
the rubbing must be neither too slow nor 
too fast. One of the secrets wholly subcon- 
scious to the blind reader is to move the fin- 
ger with the greatest speed compatible with 
perception of the points, pressing on just 
enough not to fatigue the tactile sensitive- 
ness. There was here a whole physiologic 
study to undertake, similar to that which I 
had before made upon reading among those 
who have sight. The blind who are em- 
ployed at manual labor often find it an 
advantage to use for reading the index 
finger of the left hand, the skin of which 
is less thickened. 

These observations lead me to think that, 
when he knows his letters, the adult who 



REPLACING SIGHT BY OTHER SENSES 13 

wishes to practise reading Braille will find 
every advantage by reading at first works 
which he already knows or which he has 
had read to him previously. In an hour 
one will read aloud to him more than he 
will read in a week, and he ought to read as 
rapidly as possible, guessing at the words so 
as not to stop moving the finger with the 
speed most favorable to the touch. 

In institutions for the young blind they 
do not fail to put into the children's hands 
numerous objects to teach them forms : there 
is need to do nothing of this kind for the 
blind who has seen. But for the " represen- 
tation " of forms by sketches, geographical 
maps, etc., there is some advantage in spe- 
cial teaching material, and an excellent use 
of idle moments is to run the fingers over 
one of these relief maps which are used to 
teach blind children. 

With a similar idea they make in Ger- 
many anatomical models for the education 
of blind masseurs, upon which the nerves 
and vessels are marked in relief. 

The cane which the blind makes use of 



14 ON BECOMING BLIND 

may rightly be considered as a prolongation 
of the tactile sense. This long feeler is 
much more delicate if the cane is replaced 
by a light wand. I am never without 
the blackthorn switch which was given me 
by my distinguished confrere, Dr. Yosy of 
Cboisy-le-Roi. It serves me, so to speak, 
as an antenna, and saves me from carrying 
my hands stretched out when I go about. 
About twenty centimetres from the handle 
there is attached a cord of the same length, 
ending in a button or a hook which fastens 
in a buttonhole of my coat. Owing to this 
contrivance, I unhook the wand almost 
solely for walking. It is free enough to be 
used with the left hand without unfastening. 
Besides, I avoid breaking it when I sit down 
carelessly, which did happen when the but- 
ton was attached to the end by a short cord. 
Whether it be in a crowd, as on leaving the 
theatre, or on a call in an unfamiliar room, 
I walk with this stick ahead of me, moving 
it back and forth horizontally, the ferrule 
near the ground. In the street, on the arm 
of an untried friend, especially of a lady, I 



REPLAClNa SIGHT BY OTHER SENSES 15 

feel much more secure if I have a cane in 
my hand with which to touch obstacles at 
need. I believe, too, that its use warns 
passers of the approach of a blind person 
and leads them to make room. However, 
the fine way appears to be to go about with- 
out a cane, and the old pupils of the National 
Institute of Paris try to distinguish them- 
selves by this from the less expert blind. 

To sum up, the blind, to guide them, 
make use of all other senses save sight, in- 
cluding also at times a sixth sense, which 
will be considered in Chapter XXV. 



Ill 

HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS 

Lathe and carpentry work are not be- 
yond the reach of the blind; and I know 
some who are happy and proud ui making 
wooden and pasteboard boxes and who do 
bookbinding : these are harmless pleasures 
dear to those born blind. Having practised, 
in my childhood, turning and other manual 
arts, I should not have the courage to spend 
much time making, rather badly, useless 
articles. He who loses his sight when 
relatively old has neither the patience nor 
the na'ive illusions of those born blind who 
take pleasure in manual occupations ; he has 
not had the time to become reconciled to the 
excessive slowness in everything which is 
forced upon those who work without seeing. 

The blind may make himself useful by 
contributing to the household work, particu- 
larly in families of small means. It would 

16 



HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS 17 

take too much space to reproduce here all 
that was written me on this subject by 
M. Bonnet, of Toucy (Yonne), who after 
having had very bad sight became wholly 
blind at the age of thirty-two. Few of our 
companions will carry their skill as far as 
my correspondent, who does not fear, for 
example, to light and keep up the fire, and 
who assumes the greater part of the work 
of keeping the house _tidy. He has gone so 
far as to invent a blacking easy for him to 
handle, the formula of which he will send 
to those who ask it. His greatest pleasure 
is to busy himself with the care of little 
children, being their companion as they grow 
up and taking them as guides on errands 
which are beyond their years. 

However that may be, nothing prevents 
the blind from sawing. and splitting the kin- 
dling wood, laying the fires in the grates, 
going to the cellar for wine, uncorking the 
bottle s, laymg and clearing the table^ wash- 
ing and putting away the dishes, shelling 
the beans, making the beds, sweeping the 
chambers, and cleaning the^area j^a^d. All 



18 ON BECOMING BLIND 

this calls for only a little practice and a few 
tricks of the hand. 

For instance, to make up a bed, the 
blind person, after putting two chairs side 
by side facing each other to hold the bed- 
ding, takes care before taking off each sheet 
to tie a knot in it so as to be sure when he 
puts it back not to place at the head of the 
bed the part of the sheet which had been at 
the foot. For sweeping he makes a good 
clear space by carrying successively all the 
chairs to that part of the room where he is 
not working. 

In the country, while the rest of the 
family is away at work in the fields, he 
can distribute the fodder to the cattle and 
keep the house. I have been told of one 
born blind who takes great satisfaction in 
bottling his own wine; so much the better 
for him, but as it is impossible for him to 
fill the bottles clear to the top, the work is 
rather troublesome. 

This last instance seems to me well chosen 
to show that often the household duties 
which the blind can fulfil serve only to give 



HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS 19 

him the sense, or illusion, of being useful. 
That in itself is something. 

For children who become blind very young, 
household occupations are an excellent form 
of primary education ; a mother will easily 
resolve to have the child shell the beans. And 
right here I urge upon those who have the 
care of very young blind children to isolate 
these children as little as possible. In spite 
of the dangers, much more imaginary than 
real, of so doing, they ought to send the 
little ones to the dame-school if there is one 
in the neighborhood and even to the pri- 
mary school. For them the inability to see 
is made up, in a measure, by the absence of 
distractions, and, if the teachers put ever 
so little good will into it, the children learn 
something, and above all they are filled with 
the desire to learn. If, besides, you get some 
" pointers " from a blind school, you can put 
the child in the way at home of profiting 
by the teachings he will receive at the special 
schools. For every reason the little blind 
child must not be constantly tied to its 
mother's apron strings. 



IV 

PROFESSIONAL OCCUPATIONS 

I KNOW no better way to begin this chap- 
ter than by translating a passage from a 
letter sent me by M. Riggenbach, himself 
blind and Professor of Theology at the 
University of Bale. "I am convinced/' 
writes M. Riggenbach, '^ that the adult be- 
coming blind ought to continue in his pro- 
fession in every case in which it is possible, 
and not to allow himself to be stopped by 
the difficulties at the start. If he is obliged 
to change his work, he must choose a new 
one which will put certain obligations on 
him and not leave him the choice constantly 
of working or doing nothing. 

" The blind, moreover, can find satisfac- 
tion in existence only if he does not live for 
himself alone ; if he can have the assurance 
of being a useful member of society and of 
contributing his share to the general good. 

20 



PROFESSIONAL OCCUPATIONS 21 

" It is a mistake to limit one's e^orts to 
distracting the blind. On the contrary yon 
nanst engage them in work and in using all 
their energies, but they must not expect to 
get exactly the same situations as those 
who see. For all this, it may happen that 
the blind has a very pleasant and very 
agreeable lot. For myself I am well satis- 
fied to have been able to keep on with my 
studies and to have reached a university 
position." 

It is impossible to say more. 

However, I ought to say that, as M. 
Riggenbach lost his sight at the age of 
fifteen, his position was somewhat peculiar. 
He became blind just about the time when 
a man chooses his career. 

For those who become blind later on the 
choice of a career is no longer to be made. 
It is then a question of making a decision ; 
it is necessary to brace oneself either to 
keep on, if this be possible, in the former 
occupation, or to change suddenly one's 
direction, taking account, in the choice of 
the new route, both of the knowledge pre- 



22 ON BECOMINO BLIND 

viously acquired and of external circum- 
stances. This is good advice to follow, 
not only for those who have just lost their 
sight, but especially for those who are 
threatened with blindness. 

Thus, one of my correspondents, M. 
Camille Lemaire, an architect, finding 
himself threatened with blindness, devoted 
himself to the history of architecture. 
Otherwise in this line of work he could 
only have stayed blind. It is important 
not to fall into the absurd error of having 
one about to lose his sight spend weeks or 
months of rest ; he ought as far as possible 
to be left to his occupation and usual 
resources. 

Another of my correspondents, M. Som- 
mer, adapted his conduct very fully to the 
above indications, and added to them some- 
thing more of a very ingenious turn. He 
has been able to make a profit out of his 
blindness by starting at Bergedorf,near Ham- 
burg, a kind of homelike boarding house 
for the blind of both sexes and all ages 
who may have the means of paying for his 



PROFESSIONAL OCCUPATIONS 23 

hospitality. Dr. Sommer first spent a year 
at the Institution for the BHnd at Ham- 
burg, to familiarize himself with methods 
in use at establishments of this kind ; then, 
equally to increase his special teaching 
knowledge and to perfect himself in the 
use of modern languages, he made, before 
founding his establishment at Bergedorf, a 
rather long stay in England and in France. 
You will see in Chapter XI some of the 
adventures which marked the Odyssey of 
M. Sommer. 

Since in this little book I ought to dwell 
upon my own case especially, I will state 
how much the very idea even of writing the 
present volume entered into the programme 
about to be expounded. For forty years I 
have been busied with the physiology of 
the organs of sense, and yet, while following 
the profession of an oculist, I have not 
allowed myself to be carried away by the 
practice of this means of making a liveli- 
hood, to the point of losing interest in socio- 
logic matters. I have been a Deputy, and 
a member of many associations for general 



24 ON BECOMING BLIND 

helpfulness. All tMs past seemed to me a 
useful point of departure from which, to 
make, with results, the researches and in- 
quiries which have resulted in this book. 
Like the architect of whom I have spoken, 
who, being unable to design, busied himself 
with the history of his art, I thought that, 
being no longer able to do operations upon 
the eyes or make optical experiments in 
the laboratory, I could make others profit 
by putting together my knowledge. 

I have divided, as far as possible, among 
the members of my large family the cares 
with which they wished to surround me 
and which it would be disagreeable to ask 
of a stranger ; and since no one is my espe- 
cial secretary I have reserved to myself the 
sorting of my papers in portfolios which 
bear the titles on the back both in ink and 
in raised points. A faithful friend of very 
varied learning comes from time to time to 
keep me in touch with the scientific and 
literary work of our period. I ask no 
member of my family to read what can be 
read by a servant, such as the papers, for 



PROFESSIONAL OCCUPATIONS 25 

instance, or to go with me on my errands. 
Thanks to this arrangement, one or another 
of them can travel without remorse at leav- 
ing me for weeks or months ; their freedom 
is respected as well as mine. 

I said that I had to give up optical re- 
search and consultation. This is not abso- 
lute. My successor at the Sorbonne does me 
the kindness to come and tell me from time 
to time what is being done at the laboratory 
where he was a long time my junior ; and 
if some old patient insists on consulting me, 
I call in to receive him an assistant who 
for twelve years helped me in my private 
work, and who, being a good observer, de- 
scribes to me the condition of the invalid 
and thus gives me the illusion of being still 
useful as a physician. 

It is for each one to choose between my 
method of doing and that of a very intelli- 
gent blind man, an old inventor, who had 
a happy fortune in the choice of a person 
whose permanent collaboration gave him 
entire satisfaction. He had taught her that 
very difficult art of telling what she saw 



26 ON BECOMING BLIND 

and keeping her place. For instance, if he 
had a calculation to make, the help consisted 
in her doing nothing mentally and of call- 
ing out the figures ; the blind man was thus 
obliged to follow the process himself all the 
time. 

Intermediate between these two systems is 
that of M. Riggenbach. I quote verbatim : — 

" My duty as professor of theology obliges 
me to have permanently an educated secre- 
tary who helps me in my scholastic work. 

" The work of the secretary is very wear- 
ing, and the one who assists me does not re- 
main as a rule more than one or two years 
with me. 

" Naturally this arrangement has its dis- 
advantages, for it necessitates my getting 
used rather often to a new person and each 
assistant learning my way of work and my 
processes. This demands on both sides good 
will and patience, but working with an 
assistant younger than I am brings also its 
stimulus, and there has always arisen a last- 
ing friendship between me and my secre- 
taries. 



PROFESSIONAL OCCUPATIONS 27 

" My secretary also accompanies me most 
of the time at my work." 

Thus to train a coworker with the cer- 
tainty of having to part with him must be 
a trying effort for one who has not the lofty 
soul of my Bale correspondent. 

As a remarkable example in the list of 
schemes considered in this chapter, it is in- 
teresting to cite Dr. Yosy of Choisy-le-Roi, 
who continues the practice of medicine, and 
in two ways, either by going as consultant 
with his confreres of the vicinity or in at- 
tending cases of labor. It appears that for 
certain young women the blindness of Dr. 
Yosy is even an additional reason for em- 
ploying his services. 

This leads me to recall that in Japan the 
blind have the monopoly of massage. It 
seems to me that had my loss of sight been 
accompanied by falling into poverty, I 
should not have hesitated to make my- 
self skilled in the technique of massage ; 
I suggest this idea to my confreres with 
the greater confidence since there is al- 
ready in Paris a blind masseur who, with- 



28 ON BECOMmG BLIND 

out being a physician, succeeds in earning 
his living. 

That I may not be accused of forgetting, 
I ought to recall that for more than half 
a century the blind have been taught to 
make baskets, to weave mats, to make 
brooms, to measure cloth, and to reseat 
chairs, for which opportunities offer in all 
countries. It is needless to say that even 
for those born blind these are trades of the 
smallest recompense. 

A musician becoming blind might, if not 
■ too old, take up the work of tuning pianos, 
but if he did not also add the work of 
attending to organs, the outlook would not 
be brilliant. There is no use in trying to 
teach the piano. Not being able to watch 
the position of the pupil's hands nor to 
read the notes with him, he could only hope 
to get lessons at the lowest terms. I have 
met blind persons who gave lessons in 
modern languages, always, however, for the 
lowest price. 

It may be said in general that those who 
lose their sight late in life, though they 



PROFESSIONAL OCCUPATIONS 29 

may be much less adroit in getting about 
than those who are born blind, are in a 
much better position to do well such acts 
as they are familiar with. Their previous 
knowledge of the visible world makes them 
apt in those duties the learning of which is 
very hard for the blind from birth. 

For instance, the study of French or- 
thography is enormously hard for a blind 
person ; if he succeeds in mastering it, it is 
thanks only to perseverance and the con- 
centration which often results from being 
undistracted by sight. For a blind person 
who knows unhesitatingly his spelling, 
there is nothing easier than typewriting. 
It is objected that typewriters are usually 
stenographers ; this is true, but the blind 
can confine himself to making copies, 
having the notes read to him by a less 
scholarly person. He may also hope for 
employ in one of those large firms where 
the head dictates his correspondence to a 
phonograph, dividing the cylinders among 
several typewriters. 

Helmholtz told me, in 1867, that in the 



30 ON BECOMING BLIND 

choice of his work he was guided by the 
consideration of a kind of inventory which 
he had made of his mathematical and 
musical aptitude, of his physiological and 
anatomical knowledge, and of the means at 
his disposal in the laboratory at Heidelberg; 
then, recognizing that all these circum- 
stances rarely were found brought together, 
he came to the conclusion that by devoting 
himself to a scientific study of music and 
audition he might succeed in making dis- 
coveries which had escaped mathematicians, 
physicians, physiologists, and musicians, 
more eminent than he, each in his own 
branch. 

It is by a process quite analogous that 
one becoming blind late in life, after having 
made review of the means at his disposal, 
can make a wise choice of a new career. 



NEATNESS, HYGIENE, HEALTH 

So far as the care of their bodily neatness 
goes, nothing prevents the blind from doing 
exactly as those who see. They who have 
been used to shave themselves can con- 
tinue to do so, and if they are afraid of 
cutting themselves, they may use a safety 
razor. 

There is reason, however, to call the 
attention of the blind particularly to the care 
given the hands, so much more exposed to 
being soiled, as they are used to supplement 
the sight ; and since the blind may be led 
without knowing it to touch objects of doubt- 
ful cleanness. I will cite but one example : 
some fashionable staircases are broken at 
each turn by wooden posts considered 
decorative, which easily allow the dust to 
accumulate upon the hand-rail, since their 
inconvenience prevents most people using 

31 



32 ON BECOMIlsrG BLIND 

them ; when I go up such a stairway I take 
care to touch only my nails to the rail. 

The blind do not like to wear gloves, and 
they are right. I happened on a journey to 
meet tv/o brothers, one of whom was blind, 
and at the first meeting I had no hesitation 
in telling the blind one by the fact that he 
wore no gloves. 

The clothing of the blind is particularly 
liable to be soiled, either at home, while 
eating, for instance, or on the street by 
contact with the walls or passers, or by 
spattering, owing to their inability to avoid 
puddles of water or mud. In wet weather 
the blind who go out alone are much more 
liable to dirty their clothes than those 
who are accompanied, for, in order to avoid 
stumbling on going up or down crossings, 
they are in the habit of raising the feet 
high, and the fall each time causes spatter- 
ing. 

It is for the household of the blind to 
watch over the tidiness of his clothes, and 
it adds much to the repute of his family 
that the repulsion caused by neglected 



NEATNESS, HYGIENE, HEALTH 33 

apparel is not added to the other causes 
of isolation of which he is the victim. 

Although I have put into practice from 
the first the principles of antisepsis, I 
believe the fashion which, under the pre- 
text of hygiene, does away with all hang- 
ings in the room to be extreme. It results, 
in much-used rooms, in a noisiness which is 
the foe of good acoustics. Seeing nothing, 
it is well to hear the best possible, and to 
this end I greatly prefer to live in a room 
whose walls are hung with tapestry. 

More than printed books, volumes in 
Braille may be vehicles of contagion ; they 
may have been read in bed, or even under 
the covering of the bed, by blind persons 
having a contagious disease, and who have 
constantly handled them while reading, and 
it is by still fingering them that we read. 
Institutions which lend books to the blind 
ought to take cognizance of this danger,, 
which is no small one. 

To have done with borrowed books: I 
would recommend not moistening the read- 
ing finger with the tongue, and this is a 



} 



34 ON BECOMING BLIND 

privation; for when a page is dusty, or 
simply when the sensitiveness of the finger 
begins to tire, one can give a little more 
delicacy to the touch when rubbing the 
finger over a surface, by slightly moisten- 
ing the tip. 

In a general way, it seems to me that 
great care should be given to the hygiene 
of the blind, because in their condition ill- 
ness is particularly hard to bear ; but there 
is no need to carry to the extreme an obedi- 
ence to the Draconic prescriptions of many 
hygienists, who think nothing of depriving 
their clients of the most moderate pleasures 
of the table. To act thus toward the blind 
is an exaggeration in which the family 
ought not to become an accomplice. I 
speak disinterestedly, for I am the least 
gourmand of men, and I insist that the 
blind be left in all reasonable degree all 
the pleasures of good food, coffee, pousse- 
cafe, and tobacco. If this causes him to 
die a little sooner, which I doubt, you will 
at least have spared one of the few material 
pleasures left him. 



NEATNESS, HYGIENE, HEALTH 35 

In 1834, for the first time, practical gym- 
nastic instruction was introduced in the 
School for the Blind at Pesth. This train- 
ing was developed by Klein at the Blind 
School in Vienna. Following the sporting 
tendency of the English, we would expect 
to find gymnastics more especially devel- 
oped in their schools, and in this matter the 
one at Norwood is very remarkable. Exer- 
cises are carried to truly astonishing feats 
of acrobatics. 

Nothing prevents a blind person from 
doing most of the feats which suit his 
taste. He can compete with his friends 
who see in agility upon the parallel bars 
or the trapeze, etc., but it is always an 
effort for him to go to a gymnasium and 
make a show of himself. On the other 
hand, I think it is very advantageous, if 
one has the courage to overcome the ennui, 
to set oneself at home to exercise with 
machines, or, for example, with dumb-bells. 
Especially on days when bad weather pre- 
vents going out on foot or on a tricycle, 
gymnastic exercises of this kind appear to 



S6 ON BECOMING BLIND 

me very recommendable. The deep ennui 
which, makes them so much shunned by 
those who see ought not turn the blind 
from them, as he, on the contrary, may 
find in them during his hours of sohtude a 
healthful occupation. 

Chamber gymnastics, an antidote for the 
almost absolute immobility in which he 
lives, seem to me decidedly indicated for 
the blind. He will never take too much ; 
he must be urged to take enough. 

As regards medicines : it is well for the 
blind to be able to give them to himself 
without error, especially such as are to be 
taken at night. This can be done. For 
instance, I often take calomel pills on going 
to bed. Instead of having them in different 
sizes, I have them all of one centigramme, so 
that I have only to take several from the 
same box, in case of need. I have equally 
in the same box other pills which by their 
hardness or their size keep me from mis- 
taking them for the former kind. 

In case of sleeplessness I have from time 
to time to take one or two teaspoonfuls of 



NEATNESS, HYGIENE, HEALTH 37 

syrup of chloral. For this purpose I have 
always on my table two little flasks, each 
holding just one teaspoonful. It is prac- 
tically impossible for me to measure alone 
the exact amount to take from a bottle, and 
it seems cruel, just in order to get help for 
my sleeplessness, to disturb the slumber of 
another in the middle of the night by ring- 
ing a bell. 



VI 

DWELLING 

I HAVE had occasion in the course of 
my medical practice to persuade a patient 
threatened with blindness to purchase a 
residence, so as not to be exposed to the 
danger of a forced change of home. For, 
indeed, to a blind man a change of dwell- 
ing-place is almost a disaster. For myself, 
and in this I believe that I am not the only 
blind one, every displacement, even the 
slightest, of surrounding objects, is most 
displeasing. It is a pleasure for me to be 
able without hesitation to put my hand 
upon my books, my familiar things ; I like 
to know where the objects are among which 
I have lived, and it would be a pitiful effort 
for me to try and picture them to myself 
elsewhere than where I have long seen them. 

In daily life we respect in my home 
Franklin's maxim, "A place for everything 

38 



DWELLING 39 

and everything in its place/' Everything 
after use is immediately replaced, for ex- 
ample, chairs which may have been moved 
by a visitor. If a stranger comes to visit 
me, I am left alone with him, and I have 
no need of any one to put any paper in his 
hand or to show him the use of my optical 
instruments. I go about the house with- 
out fear, and the more freely since I have 
always with me one of the light wands of 
which I spoke above. 

It is necessary, I have heard it said, in 
the dwelling of the blind, for the doors to 
be always open or shut. I am not of this 
opinion. Let us admit, indeed, that the 
family have trained themselves never to 
leave the doors half open ; one day, when 
a stranger has neglected this precaution, 
the blind person, full of confidence, runs 
into the door and bruises his forehead. The 
harm is not great, but if you wish to avoid 
it, it is best to take no precautions. Pro- 
vided the blind never goes ahead without 
moving the tip of his stick back and forth 
in front of him, his security is perfect. 



40 ON BECOMING BLIND 

I believed at first that the better to rec- 
ognize my whereabouts I would do well to 
place markers, for example, along the wall ; 
thanks to my stick, this has not been useful. 
In a very large house it would be conven- 
ient to have in certain places paths of car- 
pet or linoleum, but I have not felt the 
need for them. 

On the other hand, in a garden, even the 
best known, I feel myself lost. Passing 
some time in the country, I finally, upon the 
advice of my friend, Dr. Chibret, had a cord 
stretched to follow a certain path and so 
•travelled about like a tramway guided by 
its trolley. In the case of a permanent 
establishment, I would have a strip of as- 
phalt or concrete laid in the line of a walk, 
to make a path where I could walk freely 
while reading some light book printed in 
raised type. 

As I go to bed much later than the rest 
of my family, I have had put in my bed an 
electric coil which allows me, by means of 
a switch, to warm my feet without disturb- 
ing any one. 



DWELLING 41 

To be able to call for help in case of need, 
wherever I may be, in the house or in the 
garden, I make use of a whistle, which I 
always carry in my ]30cket. Mine is an 
English one of characteristic note. 

A means for calling, which Mr. Kenneth 
Scott showed me as used by the Orientals, 
is to strike with three fingers of the right 
hand in the slightly hollowed palm of the 
left. 



VII 

MEALS 

Save for rare exceptions, those born blind 
eat untidily and constantly put their fingers 
in their plate. Persons who lose their sight 
know without being told how disagreeable 
the appearance of this is. Accordingly, they 
will do well to restrain themselves from 
the start from ever using their fingers for 
eating. 

Meals being for the blind the pleasantest 
moments of fife, it is very important for 
him to train himself to eat properly, so that 
he may feel in position to accept an invita- 
tion out. One cannot therefore go too much 
into details upon this topic. 

The first precaution to take is to fasten 
on the chest a napkin to prevent spotting. 
There is no need for this napkin to fall un- 
expectedly. The simple means to avoid this 
is to make in one corner a little knot, which 

42 



MEALS 43 

is tucked between the neck and the collar 
of the shirt. The napkin then remains as 
securely in place as if it were fastened with 
a button. 

The most difficult proceeding is to eat 
soup properly. One can do this by tipping 
the spoon a little before carrying it to the 
mouth, in such a way that it is not too full. 

Certain acts are impossible, but they are 
not indispensable. Thus I have given up 
putting mustard upon my meat in suitable 
amounts. To the difficulty which the blind 
experiences in doing everything without 
help, there is this counterbalance, that his 
neighbor at the table always is glad to help 
him. I have learned to let my neighbor 
do me little services even when I have no 
need of them. By putting the index finger 
of my left hand a little into the glass, I can 
easily pour my own drinking water. But 
what advantage ? If my neighbor is happy 
to cut my meat and my other neighbor pro- 
poses to pick the bones from my fish, why 
should I deprive them of this pleasure ? 
One of my correspondents makes use of a 



44 ON BECOMING BLIND 

plate divided in the bottom by a ridge so as 
to separate the meat and the vegetables. 

At the start I got myself a fork made of 
aluminum. The lighter the fork is, the 
more easily one appreciates the weight of 
the morsel which is picked up ; if it is too 
heavy, it is put back on the plate and cut 
again. As a matter of fact this help is no 
longer very useful to me, and I am assured 
that I eat sufficiently well to venture into a 
considerable company. 

More than once friends with whom I 
dined have had the bright idea to keep the 
servant with whom I came, to help in the 
service. This servant, knowing my habits, 
helps me to portions as I need them without 
my saying anything, and fills my glass so 
that no one is bothered with me : and the 
conversation, which to my mind is all the 
pleasure of the meal, is not interrupted by 
material cares. 

If the person who serves me is a neighbor 
just met, I obtain almost the same result by 
having him read me the menu at the be- 
ginning of the dinner and telling him at 



MEALS 45 

one time what I intend to eat. If I do not 
do this, my inexperienced neighbor waits 
for me to ask what the dish next him may 
be, and if by chance I am in the act of 
speaking, he waits till I have finished my sen- 
tence. There results a delay in the service, 
and the attention of the diners is directed 
to us, to the detriment of the conversation. 
If the meal is the best time for the blind, 
it is due to this, that he finds himself in the 
society of persons immobile in fixed places, 
and that in consequence he can take part in 
the general conversation without the in- 
tolerable preoccupation of the coming and 
going of his interlocutors. There alone is 
he sure of not talking to a person who has 
just gone off ; there, too, being told at the 
start the position occupied by each one, he 
has no need to make an effort to recognize 
by the voice the different persons who take 
part in the conversation. Be the repast 
ever so mediocre, the good humor of the 
company helping, the blind man can for 
an hour enjoy society almost as well as 
they who see. 



46 ON BECOMING BLIND 

If the pleasure of being at table with good 
society is real for those to whom almost all 
other pleasures are denied, how much greater, 
is it not, if he can give it to himself in his 
own home, where he always feels more at 
ease and where he has the advantage of 
choosing table companions to his taste! 
Batzko has said that two happinesses only 
are accessible to the blind : that of gather- 
ing his friends about his table, and that of 
thinking of the compensations which are 
reserved for him in a better world. The 
first appears to me the surer, and I refer 
those who prefer the second to Batzko's 
book.^ 

1 Batzko, Ludwig von, " Ueber mich selbst und meine 
Ungiucksgefaelirten die Blinden." Paul Gottlaelf, 
Kunimer, Leipzig, 1807. 



VIII 

WATCHES AND CLOCKS 

During the forty years since I came of 
age I have always kept before my mind 
Franklin's motto, '' Time is the stuff of 
which life is made." This stuff I have never 
frittered away ; I have used the smallest 
moments. Accordingly, in spite of my per- 
petual night, wherein I am very often sub- 
jected either to inactivity or to the inability 
of escaping from inopportune conversation, 
I have kept a means of knowing the time ; 
and this need, poor as it is, will be my ex- 
cuse for devoting a chapter to this question. 

There are watches without crystals whose 
covers open on pressing a spring. These 
watches, of a very common type, are adapted 
to the use of the blind by the addition of 
twelve little metal pegs fastened around the 
circle of the face, opposite each numeral. 
By touching it is easy to tell the position of 

47 



48 ON BECOMING BLIND 

the hands accurately enough to tell the time 
almost to the minute. One should accustom 
himself from the first to use only the left 
hand for taking out the watch, opening it, 
and feeling the hour. He should train for 
this last work solely the left thumb. 

If you are willing to be satisfied with less 
accuracy, you may get one of those big old 
watches, now out of fashion, which were 
called turnips. On opening the glass, you 
can feel the hands. I find it pleasant also 
to carry a repeater. Nothing prevents the 
combining of these two systems and having 
a repeater arranged to show the time by the 
touch. 

It would be hard for me to give up hav- 
ing on my bedstand at night a little travel- 
ling clock which strikes the hour, for in case 
of waking in the night, it is much easier to 
get to sleep again if you can tell the time 
simply by pressing a spring. 

A luxury which can be had at little cost, 
since a Black Forest cuckoo clock fills the 
need, is to have a clock whose pendulum 
makes enough noise to be heard in all parts 



WATCHES AND CLOCKS 49 

of the room. It is a good means of orien- 
tation. Another luxury is to place in the 
room a clock which strikes each quarter of 
an hour in a different way. Lost in space, I 
find the greater satisfaction in always know- 
ing where I am as to time, which for them 
who see needs only a glance of the eye. 

It happens that in my workroom I have 
two clocks which naturally do not run ex- 
actly in time together; when by any dis- 
traction I lose the time struck on the one, 
my attention is sufficiently roused to count 
the strokes as sounded on the second. 

Lastly, to close, here is a trick by which 
you can tell the time in the night without 
other aid than an ordinary watch. Wind your 
watch slowly exactly at the time you wound 
it the night before, and count the clicks. 
You may find, for example, that there are one 
hundred forty-four, and you figure that there 
is one click for each ten minutes. If you 
have wound your watch before going to bed 
and on waking in the night wish to know the 
time, wind it again slowly, and for each click 
that you hear ten minutes will have elapsed. 



IX 

WALKING IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 

It is important for the blind not to lose 
the habit of going about afoot, and it is 
pleasant for the walk to take place without 
preoccupation on his part while chatting 
with his guide. To this end it is better 
for the blind to place his arm under that 
of his guide, which allows him to be a little 
more behind. Every time he must raise his 
foot, for example up on to the sidewalk, the 
conductor sharply raises his forearm a little 
bit. At this sign the blind lifts his foot so 
as not to stub it, and if necessary uses his 
cane to determine the exact position of the 
obstacle to be avoided. On the other hand, 
to warn of a step down, the guide presses 
his arm against his side as if to keep the 
blind one from falling in a trench. 

The various persons with whom the blind 
has occasion to go out ought all to make use 

50 



WALKING IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 51 

of the same signals as have just been ex- 
plained^ for if each one uses a different 
warning, the blind man is confused. This 
is so true that I know of blind persons 
who have with the greatest difficulty decided 
to make a change in their guide. There 
is a double indication to be followed : for 
the associates of the blind always to make 
use of the same signs, and for the blind to 
resolve to accept from other persons a dif- 
ferent course of action. With an unaccus- 
tomed guide, after showing him how to do, 
the bhnd must know how to resign himself 
if his directions are not followed. 

Most blind persons like to take a child as 
their leader, not only as being cheaper, but 
especially because a very young companion 
is accustomed to obey. The child, if it has 
a good disposition, is proud of the importance 
of its r51e and put upon its mettle to do its 
best. It is exceedingly pleasant for me to walk 
in the country under the guide of one of my 
grandchildren, and I am sure that whoever 
has the honor of leading his grandfather finds 
pleasure in it and perhaps some moral profit. 



52 ON BECOMING BLIND 

In town I prefer the arm of an old ser- 
vant, who has tact enough to keep out of 
the way when he has put me in touch with 
the person with whom I have business. If, 
for example, a friend meets me and enters 
into conversation, my guide discreetly steps 
aside until the interview is over. 

The one indication which they who lead 
the blind ought to follow is not to try and 
conceal the condition of their protege. For- 
merly the blind carried a placard, and I recall 
seeing a man go about the streets of London 
preceded by a little dog. This intelligent 
animal always kept taut the cord which the 
blind master held in one hand, while with the 
other he held a stick with which he sharply 
struck the ground at each step along the 
walls of the houses, crying without ceasing, 
"Blind! blind f blind f' All the passers 
turned out for him, and the man went about 
in the most crowded streets of the city. 
Most sightless persons are averse to such 
a proceeding and wish their infirmity to 
pass unnoticed. This ill-placed pride can 
only threaten their safety, but should be 



WALKING IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 53 

respected. My opinion in this matter is 
that, if at times the guide finds it useful 
to warn the passers, he should do it in such 
a manner that the blind does not notice it. 

Following the example of Dr. Sommer, I 
wear constantly smoked glasses, which hide 
the unpleasant stare resulting from blind- 
ness and which attract usefully the attention 
of the passer ; and no one takes it ill that my 
guide, by signs or words, endeavors to make 
my passage everywhere as easy as possible, 
and that, for example, in the street railway 
he asks a traveller to give up his seat to me. 

In Paris, and probably in most cities, the 
sidewalks have a fall toward the gutter, a 
slope less than that of the curve of the 
street, but very perceptible to the blind. 
After a short apprenticeship this fall warns 
of the approach to the crossing if one does 
not walk too fast. To tell the small un- 
evennesses of the road, it is well to wear 
shoes whose soles are not too thick. 

To tell if there is water in the gutter, the 
blind can swish his cane in it and tell by 
the sound if the ditch is dry or not. 



54 ON BECOMING BLIND 

They who become blind young make use 
of other indications, such as the sound of 
their footfall. They use also perhaps the 
" sense of obstacles/' which will be discussed 
in Chapter XXY. 

A trained guide leads his companion with- 
out jostling in the most crowded streets ; 
if they wish to avoid any one, he hastens 
his steps a little and turns a bit sideways, 
and the blind man, warned by this double 
movement, falls behind his guide and is not 
jostled by the careless passer. Other times 
the guide by a sign causes the passer to 
dodge, without the blind one knowing the 
fact. Opposed to this constant watchful- 
ness, in wide and less frequented streets the 
companions may cease holding arms and 
walk side by side ; the sound of the guide's 
steps, the conversation, or the least contact 
suffice to assure the blind of his direction. 

It is indeed a satisfaction for him to keep 
in his movements as far as possible the 
greatest independence. He does not like to 
be dragged or pushed about like an inani- 
mate object^ and this is doubtless one of 



WALKING IN TOV/N AND COUNTRY 55 

the reasons why many blind persons are 
averse to going about with any one who is 
unaccustomed to leading them. 

If on reaching his destination it is neces- 
sary for him to go upstairs, the guide lets 
go and places the bhnd one's hand on the 
baluster. By keeping his hand well ad- 
vanced, the blind has a guide which tells him 
of the approach to the landings. This is 
self-evident, but, like many other facts, why 
has it nowhere been stated ? For walking 
in narrow paths across fields, and above all 
in the mountains, it is well, while holding a 
cane in one hand, to be united to the guide 
by another stick held horizontally. After 
some practice this stick becomes a suffi- 
ciently sure means of communication, so 
that blind men have been seen, when pre- 
ceded by an experienced guide, to make 
long, hard ascensions. There are all sorts 
of tastes in the world ! 

I may even cite blind persons who find 
pleasure in riding horseback. It is needless 
to say that they do not choose mettlesome 
horses, and I know only of Dr. Armitage 



56 ON BECOMING BLIND 

who has had a serious accident while follow- 
ing this sport. 

I doubt if a person becoming suddenly 
blind late in life ever dares to go about alone, 
either in the city or in the country. It may 
be well, nevertheless, to show what those 
who are born blind are capable of doing in 
this line. I have seen, among others, the 
Swiss Joseph Birrer follow the trade of a 
pedler, going from village to village; and 
quite recently, at Paris, a blind man living 
in the Rue des Petits Carreaux, in the crowded 
quarter of the Halles, took long walks alone. 
He had always about him cigars and candies, 
which he offered according to circumstances 
to the men or children who came to his 
assistance. Equipped constantly with a 
cane and an umbrella, he took advantage 
of the least shower to open the latter, find- 
ing in its use a very easy means of knowing 
the vicinity of houses. 

The blind, either in the country or in the 
city, go about much more easily at night 
than in the day, for then the fewer noises 
and less confusion are a great help to their 



WALKING m TOWN AND COUNTRY 57 

guidance. I have been told of one who 
under these circumstances never went out 
without a lantern, so as not to be run down 
by bicyclists. 

In any case the blind can have recourse 
to a public carriage to take him in case of 
need to his home or to the house of a friend. 
It seems to me imprudent to trust oneself to 
an unknown driver without having ostenta- 
tiously had his number taken by a third 
person. 

Persons who are gradually losing their 
sight have the very greatest reason for con- 
tinuing to go about without a guide, in spite 
of the alarm of their family. They learn thus 
little by little to substitute for the informa- 
tion furnished by the sight those indications 
with which this chapter has been dealing. In 
proportion as their blindness increases, they 
will have to curtail the extent of their walks. 
On the contrary, they who become suddenly 
blind and wish to go out alone as much as 
possible will begin with very little walks 
close to their house, being watched over till 
they have acquired a sufficient assurance. 



58 ON BECOMING BLIND 

By this order of things I have actually 
practised myself to cross the boulevard on 
which I live, in order to be able at night, 
when I go to bed the last, to go alone to 
mail an urgent letter. 



TANDEM TRICYCLE 

When I lost my sight, one of my first 
occupations was to find a form of physical 
exercise active enough to fill the needs of 
my temperament, as I have always badly 
borne a sedentary life. Being a fair bicyclist, 
my first idea was to get about on a tandem 
bicycle. This would have been easy enough 
on condition of always having at my dis- 
posal a trained wheelman, which is almost 
impossible of realization. I then consulted 
Mr. Pierre Giffard, the well-known manager 
of the paper Le Velo, and, after ruling out 
the tandem, we also put aside the sociable, 
in which the two persons ride side by side, 
to adopt the tandem tricycle. 

After having gone about for several weeks 
on such a tricycle, I wrote to Mr. Giffard a 
letter, which he published in Le Velo. The 
important passages were : — 

69 



60 ON BECOMING BLIND 

" Even more than they who see, the blind 
need exercise, for all day long, without tak- 
ing note of it, the most sedentary person 
makes many small movements : he rises to 
get something, turns his head to speak to 
some one, stoops to pick up a fallen object, 
etc. ; while the sightless stays, even when 
he is able to be occupied, in a relatively 
unmoving posture. 

'' ' Do gymnastics in your room,' says 
some one. That is easy to advise, but deadly 
tiresome to do. Try with your eyes shut 
and alone to practise dumb-bells. You will 
tell a different story. After five minutes 
you will be at the end of your patience and 
will have scarcely used up a calorie, which 
is the purpose of bodily exercise. To burn 
up any number of calories, one must bring 
into action his large muscular masses. It 
is for this reason that the best sports are 
those which put into action the large 
muscles of the thighs and legs. I bring to 
proof the learned studies of my friend Lucas 
Championniere . 

'^ For the blind, riding a tricycle is better 



TANDEM TRICYCLE 61 

than walking afoot, for, however little con- 
fidence he has in his guide, the blind man, 
who it is understood takes the rear seat on 
the tricycle, takes his exercise without any 
preoccupation, while in walking he has to 
give some attention to going up and down 
the sidewalks. In crossing the streets he 
must hasten or slow his steps, or stop on 
signal from the guide, while on the tricycle 
nothing of the sort occurs. He conforms 
almost automatically to the quickening or 
slowing of the pedals of the man in front. If 
a sudden stop is necessary, the leader blows 
the horn and at the same time back-pedals 
or puts on the brake. The blind one does 
not hesitate to back-pedal also ; and, thanks 
to the stability of the machine, the easily 
made sudden stops allow progress without 
danger in the most crowded thoroughfares. 

" Your advice led me to adopt for the 
trips I wish to make a means of transport 
at once hygienic, economical, and speedy. 

" It is to be noticed that it is cleaner than 
a bicycle, for a mud guard on the front 
is sufficient. 



62 ON BECOMING BLIND 

" While the adoption of a fixed route is 
uninteresting for my guide, I find it pleasant 
to be able, if I give attention, to know all 
the time where I am. I recognize perfectly 
the curve which makes me swing round the 
fountain in the Place Francois I, the descent 
from this place to the Avenue Montaigne. 
The noise of the carriages tells me of cross- 
ing the Rue Pierre Charron. I know by the 
different roll on the pavement the moment 
when we pass into the Avenue Alma, etc, 

^^If you wish further details, come and 
get them. I offer you the front seat on 
my tricycle to go some Sunday together to 
breakfast in the country. We will chat it 
over on the way. But I make one condi- 
tion ; the first kilo or so is to be made in 
silence, for you are too much accustomed 
to a bicycle to succeed at first on a three- 
wheeler without accident. Look out for 
your trial trip. Mounted on a tricycle, the 
most expert bicyclist begins by running 
into the gutter." 

After three years of use I can say that 
the tricycle has done more than I expected. 



TANDEM TRICYCLE 63 

At first I found it very unpleasant to be at 
the mercy of a guide in the most crowded 
and noisy parts of the city. It took a good 
deal of force to throw off this wretched 
feeling by telhng myself that, after all, one 
is in much greater risk in a cab which may 
be drawn by a vicious horse or driven by a 
drunken cabby. I have become used also 
to the side rolling which the tricycle has, as 
the inequalities of the street cause one or 
the other side wheel to rise or fall. 

Besides this rolling, the tricycle has other 
faults. The principal one is that it is hard 
to apply a brake to the rear wheels. If it 
is put on the wheels, its action is unequal, 
and because of the differential it cannot be 
put on the axle. There is fear also of the 
chain breaking while going down hill 
rapidly. You must be content to go down 
steep hills slowly enough so that, if the 
chain does break, a stop can be made by the 
front rider, either by the brake or, what is 
surer, by braking with his foot. 

Another inconvenience of the tricycle is 
that punctures are more frequent than with 



64 ON BECOMING BLINB 

a bicycle; since the wheels follow three 
trajectories, there are three times as many 
chances of picking up a nail. 

My first machine, bought on a chance, 
had unequal wheels, the front wheel being 
of much larger diameter than the rear 
wheels. I do not know if this arrange- 
ment has any advantage; probably it has, 
for I found the same arrangement in the 
only other tandem tricycle I have had oc- 
casion to examine. But it is certain, on 
the other hand, that it is an advantage, so 
far as repairs are concerned, to have the 
wheels of the same diameter; for it is suffi- 
cient in such cases, when starting for a long 
trip, to carry a single extra inner tube. 

As a matter of fact, I use a machine 
made by the Frangaise Co. to the follow- 
ing specifications : the machine as short as 
possible, 2.10 m. ; the frame very strong, 
with double cross-bars, 0.55 m. high; the 
wheels strong with steel felloes, 0.65 m. ; 
pneumatic tires, 0.42 m. ; single air cham- 
ber; brake on the front wheel controlled 
by a simple lever. The machine weighs 



TANDEM TEICYCLE 65 

32 kg. The pedals are sharply bent back, 
which saves the feet in passing through mud 
and which does not offer the same incon- 
veniences in a tricycle as on a bicycle. 

The machine which I use every day and 
which gives me entire satisfaction develops 
exactly 5 m. This is not much, but it 
is not desirable to go fast. To know the 
distance travelled, I have only to divide the 
number of pedal strokes of one foot by two 
and multiply by ten. It is interesting at 
the foot of a slope to ask the guide to 
estimate the length, so as to tell at each 
moment if the effort caused by the ascent 
is to be much longer ; and as the 5-metre 
distance permits an easy control of the 
estimates, the guide soon comes to make 
them exact. 

The spacing of the rear wheels is such 
that the machine can pass through a door 
0.80 m. wide, which in the city avoids the 
need of opening the porte cochere. In the 
country I prefer, as giving less oscillation, 
to use my old machine, in which the space 
is 0.25 m. greater. 



66 ON BECOMING BLIND 

There can easily be a lady's saddle on 
either the front or rear seat, according to 
the sex of the leader or the blind person. 

If the frame is weak, it may become 
twisted. In this case the machine tends to 
swerve to the right or left. However slight 
this may be, no delay should be had in 
rectifying it, else the frame bends more and 
more ; and at the most unexpected moment 
the front wheel bends into a figure eight, 
a most serious accident, as the blind man 
lacks notably the power of decision in 
emergencies. 

The idea of having the blind ride wheels 
is not new. It has been the custom espe- 
cially at Norwood, where there is a sort of 
series of twelve courses, of which only the 
first and second are used by those who can 
see. 

I learn, too, that there are in France at 
least three blind persons who use a tandem 
tricycle : one near Saint-Nazaire, another at 
Melun, and the third at Brienne-le-Chateau. 



XI 

TRAVELLING 

Many blind persons have a fondness for 
travelling, either to meet those whose con- 
versation gives them pleasure, or just to 
enjoy the sounds of nature ; witness the 
account by Guilbeau of a walking tour in 
the mountains. 

Others travel to earn their living, as by 
giving concerts or tuning pianos at houses, 
often in a considerable radius. You may 
read in the little book of Nageli's^ the 
adventures of the blind pedler, J. Birrer, who 
in all weathers went alone from village 
to village selling his goods. At each inter- 
national congress of typhlophiles you see 
blind persons who have come alone from 
different parts of Europe. Often the blind 
one has himself driven to the station in a 

^ Nageli, Sonderbare Errinerungen und merkwiirdige 
Lebensf ahrten des Jacob Birrer. Lucerne, 1840. 
67 



68 ON BECOMma BLIND 

cab, where he is put with his baggage in the 
care of a porter. I know one w^ho, if he is 
to stop in a strange city, sends a letter 
ahead to the station-master, telling the time 
of his arrival and asking to be met on the 
platform by one of the service men, who 
will put him in the omnibus of the hotel 
to which he is going. 

In the course of a journey it seems un- 
wise to depend on the good services of the 
other travellers, save such as are offered 
freely, which often happens, especially when 
travelling third class. The only help one 
should ask of them is to be put into the 
hands of one of the station men, who will 
for a bit of silver generally do gladly all 
that is needed. By this means M. Haupt- 
vogel came from Leipzig to Paris by the 
ordinary trains, without missing any change 
of cars at the junctions, which is the chief 
difficulty. 

There are some hotels patronized by a 
clientele of the blind ; for example, in Paris, 
furnished rooms at 4 Eue Bertrand, quite 
near the Institution, and in London the 



TEAVELLING 69 

pension of Miss Blott, 30 St. Charles Square, 
North Kensington, W. 

When the bhnd man arrives at any hotel, 
he does wisely to take the first pretext to 
give at the start a rather large tip to those 
servants whose services he will need ; by so 
doing he will want for nothing at the table 
d'hote and will not be at the mercy of his 
next neighbor. 

I know a blind man, a devoted traveller, 
who tries to appear as little awkward as 
possible. To attain this he has made a 
number of ingenious observations. For ex- 
ample, he knows that to get into a beach- 
wagon, if there are two steps, he must, if he 
is on the left of the wagon, begin by put- 
ting his right foot on the lowest step ; if he 
starts with his left, he is lost. 

I do not delude myself as to the useful- 
ness of this chapter, for I have as yet found 
but few persons who lost their sight late in 
life who have the courage to travel alone 
despite the opposition of their family. 
M. Sommer, of Bergedorf, near Hamburg, 
writes me as follows : — 



70 ON BECOMING BLIND 

'' I am of the opinion that journeys taken 
alone without a guide contribute greatly to 
strengthen the confidence of the blind in 
themselves and to render them independent. 
I have made the following trips alone : from 
Hamburg to Harwich by the English steam- 
packet. For a tip the steward had the 
kindness to come to my aid. At Harwich 
he went with me and my luggage as far 
as the train which took me to London. 
At London I was met by a lady to whom 
I had sent my photograph so that she could 
recognize me. During my stay in London I 
employed as my guide a little boy of twelve. 
I prefer children of this age, whom I find 
very useful if they are honest and truthful. 
I take care of my own linen, arranging my 
clothes and other belongings ; I unpack and 
pack my trunk on arriving and leaving. I 
make use of other persons only for reading. 
My correspondence comes to me in Braille 
and I reply on a typewriter. . . . 

" After a stay of a month I set out for 
Southampton. A railway employee under- 
took to put me and my baggage on the 



TRAVELLING 71 

steamboat, where I placed myself in charge 
of the steward. After a crossing of twelve 
hours I arrived at Havre . The gentleman who 
was to have met me was not on the wharf, 
so I passed the customs and had myself 
taken in a cab to the hotel, which I knew 
of from an advertisement in the paper. . . . 
" After a stay of six months I embarked 
for Hamburg. It was in December. The 
packet was German and the sea rough. 
Since, before losing my sight, I had made 
the voyage from South America on a simi- 
lar boat of the same line, it was possible 
for me to find my way about without a 
guide, and I had recourse to the steward 
only to cut up my food. By reason of the 
storm we lost one blade of the propeller, 
which lengthened the voyage, and made 
us late in reaching Hamburg, where there 
was no one to meet me. The steamer did 
not go to the wharf, but anchored in the 
middle of the Elbe. Everybody, even the 
surgeon, left the boat as soon as he could. 
I alone remained. It was eight o'clock at 
night and cold, the thermometer being at 



72 ON BECOMING BLIND 

12° C. I had to take an unknown work- 
man to get me ashore and to pass my many 
bags through the customs. We went down 
together, he carrying my bags, into a steam 
launch which took us to the custom-house. 
After the inspection I took a carriage, to 
which I intrusted my trunks, and gave the 
driver the address of the lodging I had 
engaged. Unfortunately they had sent me 
the wrong number, which put me to the 
trouble of hunting the house, up and down 
the street, till I succeeded in finding it. 

"If such adventures are unpleasant at 
the time, you can get some satisfaction 
from them later in having got out of the 
trouble alone. They all go to strengthen- 
ing one's self-confidence, which you acquire 
more by travelling than by any other way.'' 

Quite recently, in speaking of this subject, 
my friend Mounier, of Geneva, wrote me 
that he travelled from time to time alone, 
although not obliged to, and though he pre- 
ferred a companion ; he thus gained a secu- 
rity in case of his travelling companion 
being obliged to leave him. 



XII 

OUTSIDE ASSOCIATIONS 

It is hard for a blind person to make 
new associates, and, besides, relations with 
persons whom he has never seen are with 
great difficulty brought to any degree of 
true intimacy, unless by rare chance there 
is in his family some one close enough of 
observation and expert enough in describ- 
ing, to give him a picture of the new 
friend. 

The blind has, therefore, the greatest 
reason for keeping up his old relations ; 
every interruption is a mistake. For this 
reason I no longer go back to the societies 
which formerly I attended closely for many 
years, such as the Societe de Physique and 
the Societe de Biologic, for the membership 
of these societies is more or less completely 
changed ; while I do continue to attend 
the meetings of the Academy of Medicine, 

73 



74 ON BECOMING BLIND 

to which I went regularly up to the time 
of my misfortune. As a matter of fact the 
blind is reduced to conversing with those 
who come to him, and in a gathering of 
men who have no personal interest in him 
he is isolated and more lonely than in the 
darkest corner of his own home. 

You must not think that people crowd 
about the blind ; they shun him as useless. 
How many times has my guide told me of 
persons passing by me without stopping to 
shake hands, — friends of yesterday with 
whom I had only the pleasantest relations. 
Every one is busy and passes without a 
word. If he stops with the blind at all, 
he fears he will not be able to break 
away easily. This is especially true of 
the numberless persons with whom one is 
wholly satisfied to exchange just a few 
words. These people drop out of existence 
for the blind. 

If we are treated thus, it is often our own 
fault. As a matter of fact if any one in a 
rather large company comes up to converse 
with us, we are apt to fasten ourselves to 



OUTSIDE ASSOCIATIONS 75 

this kind neighbor and stick. This is a great 
mistake ; the speaker, prevented from min- 
ghng with the guests, does not let himself 
be caught a second time and at the next 
meeting avoids accosting us. I have learned 
to my cost that in such cases our interest 
demands our taking the initiative, and free- 
ing the friend who has been willing to 
tackle us by asking him to put us in touch 
with some other person, which he gladly 
does. 

Some people imagine that in talking with 
the blind they refresh their sorrow by speak- 
ing of things seen. Quite the contrary; 
nothing is pleasanter, when one has no 
sight, than to be informed, through the 
eyes of another, of visible things, however 
insignificant. 

It happens, too, that by an ill-judged 
discretion or from timidity they hesitate 
to begin a conversation with us. They 
fear to disturb, and above all they do not 
know how to start or to continue the con- 
versation. They refrain at the first meet- 
ing and continue indefinitely to refrain, 



76 ON BECOMING BLIND 

because they do not take sufficiently into 
account that one has only to talk to a blind 
person as if nothing were the matter. 

In meeting the blind^ little things affect 
their spirits disagreeably. One may be hurt 
if he does not take the hand extended to 
him, or if at the first word of friendly 
greeting he says, " Who is it speaking ? " 

It is for all these reasons that the majority 
of blind people are led to shut themselves 
up at home, confining their relations to 
their family and the few tru.e friends who 
continue to visit them. It is much to the 
heart, but monotonous to the spirit. 

It is the duty of those who care for the 
blind to take him into society, to tell him 
as far as possible who are the people pres- 
ent, that he may have a little initiative, 
and to bring up to him those who do not 
come of their own accord, not realizing how 
much happiness their little effort may give 
the man isolated in night. 

What makes the position of the blind 
most particularly trying in company is that 
he does not know when his interlocutor 



OUTSIDE ASSOCIATIONS 77 

leaves. If he always has some one with 
him, his guide informs him; but this is a 
hard task for the companion. In a salon 
one who speaks to a blind person, and by 
rare chance has taken pains to tell his name 
at the beginning of his conversation, never 
thinks to say again who he is when he comes 
back after a short interval. When I can, I 
like to take my place on a sofa which allows 
me to take very lightly between two fingers, 
quite unseen, a fold of the person's garment 
with whom I am talking, and who then can- 
not leave without my knowing it. 

It is not given to every one to have a 
faithful companion who knows how to 
make him hear the name of whoever comes 
to him without affectation, and as if address- 
ing them to wish them good day; who 
knows how in a conversation to make the 
needful remarks to save him from address- 
ing some one who has just left or from call- 
ing him to witness ; who knows how to 
keep him in touch with the movements of 
the guests so as to save him that hateful 
thing, speaking to empty space. 



78 ON BECOMma BLIND 

All things considered, unless he is accom- 
panied by some one who makes complete 
self-sacrifice, the blind ought to avoid going 
into a large company. 



XIII 
EEADING ALOUD )<^ 

To be read aloud to will always remain 
one of the greatest resources of the blind ; 
but how inferior to reading oneself ! 

As regards general literature, with a good 
reader one can enjoy books well enough. 
But reading the paper ! It takes an hour 
and a half or two hours to read aloud a 
paper of the most moderate size. Try the 
experiment, noting the time it takes to read 
aloud a whole page of the paper. You 
would not believe it. As a fact the most 
poorly educated person skims through the 
paper and does not really read a fourth of 
it, and what he does read he takes in at a 
glance with a speed which no human voice 
can attain. 

Try the experiment; you will be sur- 
prised at the difference in speed in favor of 
mental reading. To follow the reading of 

79 



80 ON BECOMINa BLIND 

a paper from beginning to end is at most 
acceptable to the unhappy pensioners of 
Quinze-Vingts, who, seated like a class, 
listen together to the reading of a paper 
which they choose by an annual vote. 

The ideal would be for some one knowing 
the tastes and associations of the blind one 
(note this last point) to read the paper her- 
self, marking the facts and portions of arti- 
cles which may interest him. Even then 
the person who reads aloud the marked 
passages will never take the place of read- 
ing with one's own eyes, where the rate con- 
stantly changes, hastening to the conclusion 
here, and slowing there, as a paragraph 
merits attention or not. 

If, with a great deal of good will and 
intelligence, the household of the blind can 
keep him informed of the contents of the 
papers, it is not so with the special reviews, 
especially those which appear in foreign 
languages. I have almost given up the 
pleasure of following the progress of oph- 
thalmology, for it would take whole days to 
have read to me what I would run through 



READING ALOUD 81 

in a few minutes a day in our special re- 
views. 

If I prefer for a reader a hired person 
rather than a friend or a relative, it is be- 
cause I like to be able, with entire want of 
regard for him, to skip paragraphs, sections, 
or chapters, or to have repeated important 
passages. But the paid reader must be 
honest enough not to skip without warning 
whole pages of a volume which bores him. 
This has happened. 

One who feels on equal footing with us 
hardly tolerates our taking notes while he 
is reading, either in ordinary writing or in 
Braille. He is impatient if we stop him 
for this purpose ; and if we let him keep 
on while we write, he complains of our 
want of attention. To read to a blind per- 
son is not an easy task. 

I had read aloud to me, by my first 
reader, Legouve's "Art of Reading," but 
scarcely had she got into the principles of 
the master, of which the most important is 
to pause well at the punctuation points, 
than I had to change her. I have not had 



82 ON BECOMma BLIND 

the courage to begin again so laborious an 
education, and I content myself with a 
moderately good reader. 

Save with very rare exceptions, people do 
not pay enough attention to the punctuation 
when reading aloud. The training, in this 
regard, of a reader whom one is likely to 
keep for a long time well repays the trouble. 
During the first sessions you must require 
without any mercy at all a long pause after 
each sentence. This is useful for the 
reader. It allows the listener to retain 
more or less what he has just heard. If 
the reader does not pause long enough at 
each period, the next sentence, as it were, 
wipes out the preceding from our mind. 
Besides, the pauses are unconsciously used 
by the reader to read the next sentence 
mentally; as a result he places much better 
inflection when he reads it aloud. 

It is important also, as it is hard, to 
oblige the reader to call attention so far as 
necessary, to the marks of punctuation, 
such as quotation marks, parentheses, or 
change of characters. If a letter occurs in 



READING ALOUD 83 

the text, the reader should begin with the 
signature ; if a footnote^ he must say " be- 
ginning of the note," "end of the note." 

An untrained reader passes over in silence 
the titles of chapters or the numbers of 
paragraphs. 

One gets great pleasure in being read to 
while walking about in a garden ; it is a 
satisfaction thus to combine mental refresh- 
ment with needed exercise. Walking be- 
side the reader and guided by the steady 
sound of his voice, it is agreeable to move 
about thus in freedom. But, poor reader ! 

I know some blind persons who have 
some one come at a fixed hour to serve as 
reader and secretary. I wonder at them, 
for I have never been able thus to make 
myself the slave of set hours ahead. I 
much prefer to employ, when I wish, a 
person who is busied with other work and 
who returns, for example, to her needlework, 
if a caller comes in. 

During vacations I have plays read to 
me by my many grandchildren, distributing 
the parts among them. By rivalry they 



84 ON BECOMING BLIND 

have made themselves perfect in the art of 
reading aloud, and I think that later they 
will have a pleasant memory of the happi- 
ness which they gave their grandfather. 
This kind of theatre in an arm-chair has 
given me a choice recreation. 



XIV 

HANDWRITING 

The question of writing presents itself to 
one who becomes blind in quite another aspect 
than it does to one blind from birth. It is 
almost impossible for the latter to learn the 
ordinary form of writing, while for one who 
has written much it is not hard to continue, 
in spite of the loss of sight. If, then, writ- 
ing by points, devised about a century ago 
by Captain Barbier and of which Braille was 
the Amerigo Vespucci, is almost exclusively 
used in blind asylums, it seems to me to 
hold only a secondary place, in the means 
for inscribing his thoughts, at the disposal 
of one who has lost his sight at a relatively 
late age. 

Any one can assure himself of this. Noth- 
ing is easier than to write several words 
without looking. The difficulty begins when 
it comes to writing several lines without 
having them run into each other. 

85 



86 ON BECOMING BLIND 

A well-known plan consists of first fold- 
ing the paper in plaits ; that is, you make 
a first fold about a centimetre from the 
edge of the paper ; then without unfolding 
this you make another in the opposite direc- 
tion about a centimetre lower down, and so 
on until finally the paper is plaited into a 
packet. You write on the top face of this 
packet, which you unfold as you write on 
successive folds. 

The expedient of the paper folded in 
plaits is not convenient when one has much 
to write; accordingly a great number of 
inventors have devised scotographic boards 
more or less serviceable. I have had one 
made which has given me full satisfaction, 
and which, with others, has served me in 
writing the present volume. It was de- 
scribed with explanatory diagrams in the 
magazine La Nature for May 18, 1901. It 
can be had in France of Giroux, 19 Rue de 
rOdeon, Paris. Not being patented, it is also 
made abroad. This board, though a little 
cumbersome, does away with the need of a 
table ; to use it one should sit by preference 



HANDWRITING 87 

in a low chair and hold it on the right 
knee. 

It was in the following words that I pre- 
sented mj tablet to the Academy of Medi- 
cine, April 23, 1901: — 

'^ Last year, having lost my sight, I wished 
to procure a means which would allow me 
to continue to write as in the past. Among 
the many systems coming to my notice, of 
which I tried several, none gave me satis- 
faction, for they did not leave my arm and 
fingers entire freedom in their movements. 
The guide, whatever it might be, was a con- 
stant obstacle which hindered or cramped the 
writing, and a cause of preoccupation tram- 
melling to the freedom of mind of the writer. 

'- 1 then had made this scotographic tablet 
which I demonstrate to you, and which is 
constructed on the physiologic principles of 
writing which I have elsewhere set forth.^ 

^ " Le mechanisme de I'ecriture," Revue scientijique, 
May 21, 1881, Vol. XXVII, p. 647. " Siir I'ecriture," 
Societe de biologie, November 24, 1883 (distinction be- 
tween the isochronic movements of the thumb and the 
fingers). " Essai sur la physiologic de I'ecriture." pp. 32. 
Alcide Picard et Kaan. 



88 



ON BECOMING BLIND 




The characteristic part of this little appa- 
ratus is a sort of rim where the writer's 
elbow rests. Pivoting in a horizontal plane, 

the forearm de- 
scribes the arc of a 
circle of large radius 
with the point of 
the pen, and this arc 
gives the general 
form to the line of 
writing. If the 
paper is of moderate 
width, the lines thus 
made have a very 
slight curvature and 
are much less un- 
sightly than a simi- 
lar curve seen in a 
good many writings. 
" A second fea- 
ture of my instru- 
ment is a ratchet 
which serves to move the paper up a centi- 
metre each time the writer passes from one 
line to the next. 






A'^-~. 




HANDWRITING 89 

" And lastly, you see that I use one of 
the handy fountain pens which come from 
America. It seems to me better to write 
with ink than with a pencil, for it is very 
hard for the blind to keep tab on the point 
of his pencil so as to turn it and not allow 
the lead to get flat, which broadens the lines 
without his knowledge and may render them 
undecipherable. 

"But it may happen that the pen does 
not mark at the start, and I have had the 
heartbreaking experience of finding after I 
thought I had written a page that I held 
only a blank sheet. 

" To avoid this mischance, I use a narrow 
strip of unsized paper, similar to copying 
paper. To tell if my pen marks, I only have 
to draw a line across the paper. If the 
ink runs, it moistens the paper, which lessens 
its resistance to tearing. I try the experi- 
ment before you without fear of failure ; you 
see that the paper tears under very slight 
effort and I decide that the pen worked. 

" If you wish to have a sample of the 
usefulness of my tablet, you have only to 




90 ON BECOMING BLIND 

cast a glance at the manuscript of the present 
communication. In my fear of not being 
legible I have written a little slower than 
usual, and if I may believe my friends, the 
result is really acceptable." 

When I have to write a letter away from 
home, I go to work by a system analogous to 
that realized in my planchette. I put my 
right elbow on the table, close to the edge, 
and with the well-settled intent of not mov- 
ing it while I am writing. Next I put the 
paper down so that its left border coincides 
with the left edge of the table. Whenever 
I have finished a line, I slip the paper along 
the edge of the table so as to carry it away 
from the fixed point held by my elbow. 
With a little skill the left hand comes to 
move the paper each time by almost the 
same amount. To do this, you can, for 



HANDWRITING 91 

instance, hold the paper by the first four 
fingers, the little finger holding the angle at 
the head of the sheet and the edge of the 
table. After each line the trick consists in 
moving the little finger about a centimetre, 
and then, by the help of the four others, 
sliding the paper along until it comes in 
touch with the little finger. It is needless 
to say that by this method the lines are much 
less evenly spaced than with the planch ette 
and that the manoeuvre takes more skill. 

If you wish to write with pencil you should 
use preferably the Koh-i-Noor pencil, which 
marks very black while being very hard. 
It is stamped ^' British Graphite Drawing 
Pencil, Compressed Lead." Made by L. and 
C. Hardtmuth in Austria. 



XV 

TYPEWKITING AND PHONOGRAPHY 

For the blind who before losing their 
sight had poor penmanship, one cannot 
recommend too strongly the use of a type- 
writer. This advice is all the more to be 
followed the younger the person^ for then 
the length of apprenticeship in learning 
typewriting is much shorter, and the proba- 
bility of profiting from it for many years is 
greater. 

Instead of putting the Braille letters on 
the keys, it is better to learn the keyboard 
by heart; and the blind scholar can help 
himself in this by means of a paper on 
which he has copied in Braille the letters in 
the order they occur on the keyboard. 

I have more than once urged patients 
threatened with blindness to familiarize 
themselves with the use of a typewriter. 
This advice was much more acceptable as 

92 



TYPEWKITING AND PHONOaRAPHY 93 

it was most often given to people who, not 
seeing well enough to make out their own 
writing, could still see the large letters on 
the machine. The advice does not seem to 
me good to be given to old people, for if at 
any age one can learn finger-writing, this 
does not mean that one can come to do 
rapidly an act so automatic and unconscious 
as writing. Besides, unless this automatism 
is obtained, typewriting is of but moderate 
use to the blind ; for he cannot, like one 
who sees, write from a rough copy. He 
cannot make erasures, and so is obliged to 
construct each sentence in full before be- 
ginning to write. 

At Montpellier a blind employee of the 
Petit Matin receives the news over the 
telephone and writes it on a machine ; his 
sheets are then sent to the type-setters. 

Machines have been constructed which 
print at the same time pages for those who 
see and for the blind ; as yet these machines 
are imperfect. If his correspondent makes 
use of one of these machines, the blind can 
read without witnesses a letter addressed 



94 ON BECOMING BLIND 

to liim by one who writes in Braille with- 
out himself knowing it. 

For the blind, as for him who sees, the 
most rapid way of setting down his thoughts 
is the phonograph. The inconveniences of 
this machine are: first, its size, which scarcely 
permits its use outside the house ; then the 
short time-duration of the rolls (in the 
ordinary model the cylinders hardly run 
three minutes) -, then the cost, already high 
for an ordinary machine, and excessive if 
one wishes a special model or one with 
cylinders which will run for half an hour. 

In many American business houses the 
manager dictates his correspondence to a 
phonograph and the rolls are then distrib- 
uted among the typewriters. Nothing 
prevents a business or literary man who 
becomes blind from thus making use of the 
phonograph. 

For myself, I make willing use of the 
phonograph to dictate to it the plan of a 
piece of work, which I then have it repeat 
to me article by article as I proceed with 
the compiling. Lastly, thanks to the uni- 



TYPEWRITING AND PHONOGRAPHY 95 

formity of cylinders, it is possible to corre- 
spond with a friend who has a phonograph 
by exchanging cylinders by mail. 

It appears that the gramophone, a recent 
invention, is much superior to the phono- 
graph. 



XVI 

READING AND WRITING BRAILLE 

In special schools writing in dots, known 
under the name of Braille writing, is the 
cornerstone of the instruction. Accordingly, 
when an adult loses his sight, the first advice 
that the instructors of the blind give him is 
to busy himself with learning Braille, advice 
useful, no doubt, but to which the friends 
of the blind attach perhaps an exaggerated 
importance. 

Reading Braille is a resource for hours of 
solitude. In case of insomnia a book printed 
in relief is an incomparable bedfellow. I 
find it very handy to mark the place where 
I stop reading by fixing on the edge of the 
page one of the very small spring nippers 
which you get at the stationer's. It is a 
trick, too, of the blind who are in the habit 
of making typographical corrections, to 
mark the line they wish to find again by a 



READING AND WRITING BRAILLE 97 

raised dot made opposite it in the margin of 
the page. 

If there is among the family of the blind 
one who wishes to learn to read Braille, he 
will do well to learn it on the back side, 
that is, from right to left, the reading thus 
becoming identical with the writing. 

Reading Braille, so precious for those born 
blind, is only a pis alter because of its 
exceeding slowness. There is but a very 
limited number of blind who can read aloud 
a book in Braille with sufficient speed to 
make the listening to it endurable. 

All my correspondents who know it, save 
those who lost their sight very young, are 
unanimous in reducing to a minimum, be- 
cause of their slowness, the use of Braille for 
writing and especially for reading. To quote 
but one, I take this from a letter of M. Rig- 
genbach : — 

" I learned to read and write Braille im- 
mediately after losing my sight, but I have 
made very little use of it. Reading and 
writing in dots takes too much time and is 
too exhausting to be a frequent employment 



98 ON BECOMma BLIND 

when there is the possibihty of being read 
to or of dictating. Becoming blind at the 
age of fifteen years, I had not the speed and 
ease in writing of older persons. Accordingly 
I went twenty-six years without writing. 
Quite recently I bought a typewriter. ..." 

The slowness of reading Braille makes 
itself felt even more sadly when it comes 
to reading, for pleasure, the books which 
you wish only to skim or turn the leaves. 

This results from the fact that the finger 
can never touch more than one letter at a 
time, while the eye takes in on the average 
seven letters at each movement it makes as 
it passes along the printed line. Eeading 
by finger, then, is for physiologic reasons at 
least seven times slower than reading by 
sight .^ 

1 Persons interested in questions of this sort may- 
refer to my articles on the physiology of reading which 
appeared in the Annates d'oculistique in 1878 and 1879; 
to my articles on the hygiene of reading, in the Bulletin 
de la Societe de medecine publique, 1878, and in the 
Compte rendus dela Societe de biologie, 1878 and 1879; to 
my article on books and myopia, Revue scientijique, No- 
vember 22, 1879, and Revue dliygiene, 1880 ; to my article 
on the evolution of typography, in its relation to the hygi- 



READINGS AND WRITINQ BRAILLE 99 

But you will be told there is in each lan- 
guage an abbreviated spelling for Braille. 
To speak only of the French, the gain is about 
one-third ; but let us well understand : the 
abbreviation allows an economy of about 
one-third of the paper and perhaps a quar- 
ter of the time of the perfectly trained 
writer ; for reading, experience demonstrates 
that the increase of speed is nil. 

About 1900 an American, Mr. Hall, made 
an excellent key machine for writing Braille. 
Three keys are worked by three fingers of 
the right hand and three others by three 
fingers of the left hand. One can see that 
by aid of this machine the speed of writing is 
the same for the most complex characters as 
for those made by a single dot. The objection 
to this machine is its cost (115 francs), its 
weight of several kilos, and the noise it 
makes. 

These inconveniences will no doubt be 

ene of vision, Revue scientijique, June 25, 1881, and Revue 
d'hygiene, 1881. See also Lamarre, " The Movements of 
the Eyes during Reading" (work done in my laboratory), 
Compte rendus de la Societe fran9aise d'ophtalmologie, 
1898, p. 354. 



100 ON BECOMING BLIND 

lessened one day. I do not think that the 
machine v/ill ever do away with the use of 
the pocket tablet. 

With the American Hall machine, or its 
like, you can write at least three times as 
fast as with the stylet. 

To make arithmetical calculations, take 
either the reckoning slate of Schleusser of 
Nuremberg or a cubarithme of the National 
Institute, the use of which is handy also for 
the first study of Braille writing. One may 
also, in default of a cubarithme, set down 
the numbers in dots and then turn over the 
paper so as to be able to touch the points 
and set down the results in reverse. I refer 
for this matter to the volume of Barazer.^ 

The adult who becomes blind will find 
great advantage in using Braille to take 
notes of brief facts gathered in conversation. 
I cannot picture myself deprived of my 
aluminum pocket tablet. 

Unfortunately, the model of the tablet 
sold at the Institute is made for more adroit 

^ Le commandant Barazer, " Conseils aux personnes 
qui perdent la vue." In 8vo, Dunod, Paris, 1887. 



READING AND WRITING BRAILLE 101 

fingers than mine. I have found it so very 
inconvenient that I use the pocket tablet 
ahnost solely to note proper names and 
figures. Accordingly, I have had one made 
for me which, in the same shape, has only 
six lines instead of nine, and sixteen letters 
to a line instead of twenty-three. 

Braille serves me, too, to render recogniz- 
able by touch papers which I wish to pre- 
serve, as well as the strong paper envelopes 
in which I classify my documents. You 
can get at the Institution special paper of 
varying thickness at a moderate price. It 
is still more economical to use chance papers 
such as come from records and which are of 
excellent quality. The use of paper which 
has been written on is not noticed by the 
blind ; it need be avoided only in inter- 
course between the blind and those who can 
see. For what is not intended to be saved 
or to go by mail, ordinary paper is quite stiff 
enough ; with books, in spite of the use of 
very thick paper, it may happen that by use 
or a careless compression the points lose 
their relief. 



102 ON BECOMING BLIND 

It would take long to tell the means of 
learning Braille. I shall not go into it, as in 
such a matter the means of information are 
abundant. It is easy, besides, to learn Braille 
without a teacher, thanks to the exercise 
books which are on the market. I recom- 
mend especially that of Captain Mouchard, 
to be had at the Association Valentin Haiiy, 
as well as a book of which I am the author, 
and which I compiled to facilitate the study 
of abbreviated French orthography. 

When one wishes to learn Braille, he must 
give to it at the start as much time as pos- 
sible. The best plan is for the first few 
days to do nothing else, up to the point of 
being haunted at night. Take each day 
many lessons, but not so long as to pass 
the limit of sustained attention or to tire 
the sensitiveness of the finger-tips. To read, 
make use of two indices, one beside the other, 
moving down simultaneously. Write and 
read alternately, and above all memorize 
the Braille table. By thus doing, in spite 
of a mediocre memory and one weakened 
by age, I think that every one can learn in 



READING AND WRITING BRAILLE 103 

a few weeks to write and read sufficiently 
to get real advantage from it. Persons who 
find it too hard to recognize the letters of 
the usnal size can make use, at least at 
first, of a tablet pierced with larger squares, 
for example, the so-called Prague model sold 
at the National Institution at Vienna. One 
can get from the British and Foreign Blind 
Association of London tablets making letters 
of very large size. 

To sum up : the younger and the more 
isolated he is, the more it is important for 
the blind to familiarize himself with Braille, 
which, thanks to the considerable number of 
books found in every civilized country and 
notably to the important reading library 
organized for France by the Association 
Valentin Haiiy, furnishes him with a con- 
siderable means of instruction and of dis- 
traction. Many are subscribers to the 
magazine Le Louis Braille, printed for their 
use. 

Unfortunately the larger number of books, 
and notably Le Louis Braille, are printed in 
abbreviation ; and unfortunately, too, there 



104 ON BECOMING BLIND 

exists such, differences between the short 
form of different countries that very few- 
blind persons are capable of reading abbre- 
viation in a foreign language. Every one 
is agreed that it is well not to learn short 
form before being perfectly familiar with 
ordinary writing. Each one may then see 
if he wishes to throw himself into this 
complementary study. 

Before studying the speed of reading and 
writing by the blind, it is interesting to 
bring together some approximate indications 
as to the speed of the various means which 
man employs to express his thought. When 
I say nothing to the contrary, I will admit, 
with the typewriters, that single words 
only are considered. For example Vliomme 
counts as a single word. For writing of 
dactylography I admit that the writer must 
put in his capitals, accents, and punctuation ; 
the same for Braille. 

It would not be hard to gather statistics 
as to the speed of mental reading, which 
is the habit of educated men. One will find 
considerable individual di:fferences. For 



READING AND WRITING BRAILLE 105 

« 
want of exact information I will admit that 

one reads easily, without letting anything 

slip, five hundred words a minute. 

We are better informed on the rapidity 
of speech. From what has been told me at 
the Stenographic Institute (150 Boulevard 
Saint-Germain, Paris), the slowest speaker 
utters more than one hundred words a min- 
ute, while the most rapid rarely says more 
than two hundred. A fair mean appears 
to be one hundred and sixty words a minute. 

A skilled typewriter writes easily for 
hours forty words a minute. The record, 
made at the Exposition of 1900, is sixty-six 
words. One may say, then, that the speed 
of typewriting is about one-fourth that of 
reading aloud. I estimate the speed of a per- 
fectly legible handwriting at twenty words, 
or about half that obtained generally by 
typewriting. A very rapid writing, omitting 
the accents and the dots over the i's, but not 
the punctuation, readable without hesitation 
by the one who wrote it, may reach thirty- 
five words. You have seen above that with 
my planchette I can write twenty-five. 



106 ON BECOMING BLIND 

Skilled telegraphers send, in Morse, 
twenty-five words of five letters a minute, 
but they do away with capitals and accents. 
This is then a speed comparable to ordinary 
writing. The employee at the receiver of 
a Morse instrument who takes the message 
by hearing writes it easily with the pen. 
All are agreed in saying that by ear they 
understand telegrams when sent at much 
greater speed. The rate of Morse is limited 
only by the manual speed possible to the 
sender. 

In 1856, a little while after the invention 
of Morse, a high official of the French 
telegraph, M. Charles Bourseul, had the 
idea that this alphabet could be used by 
the blind in preference to Braille, and he 
constructed an apparatus similar to the 
Morse key, acting without clockwork, by 
the aid of which one could write the Morse 
alphabet in relief. From the newer prog- 
ress of telegraphy one could easily devise 
a similar instrument, where the signs are 
replaced by two lines of perforated dots, 
which would allow one to read a F audition 



READING AND WRITING BRAILLE 107 

the strips obtained by the writing instru- 
ment.^ 

Coming to Braille ; of all writing it is 
the slowest, especially for one who comes to 
it late. I write four words a minute. The 
most skilled blind person scarcely exceeds 
eight; by the help of the short form none 
succeeds in passing ten and then at the cost 
of legibility, for in hurrying too much one 
makes mistakes and writes badly with 
raised dots, especially on tablets with lines. 

The slowness of Braille is still more 
marked when it comes to reading. I man- 
age to read twenty words ; many born blind 
read sixty, a few reach one hundred, and 
now and then one, a hundred and twenty. 
M. de Menienx, librarian of the Association 
Valentin Hatiy, has read in my presence 
almost two hundred words a minute. At 
the moment his right index finger reached 
the end of one line, his left had already 
passed over about half of the following line ; 

1 Instituteur des aveugles, Guadet's journal, Vol. II, 
p. 140; "An Estimate by Ballu of the instrument of 
Bourseul, " ibid., p. 162. 



108 ON BECOMING BLIND 

SO that almost all the time his mental read- 
ing by the left hand preceded by a variable 
time the reading of the right hand, which 
in turn probably preceded more or less the 
vocal reading. M. de Menieux agrees with 
his colleagues in saying that the reading of 
short form is much less rapid than that of 
Braille in full. The example of certain 
rapid readers ought not to make us forget 
the foregoing figures, according to which, 
even for those born blind, the reading is of 
such slowness that, if they are satisfied with 
it, it is because they have not tasted the 
pleasure of reading by sight which they 
who see enjoy. 

What I have just said applies to French. 
It is evident that in German one would 
write fewer words a minute without perhaps 
being less skilful, for a German word has 
as many letters as several French words. 

The English language is probably the 
most rapid. When one says " stop " for 
'^ arretez " or " hus " for " omnibus " or ^' go 
on " for " continuez^' one can easily prick 
out many words a minute. Accordingly, at 



READING AND WRITING BRAILLE 109 

the Chicago Exposition the record of type- 
writing was ninety-seven words a minute. 
As for reading English, according to a re- 
markable memoire of M. Edmond B. Huey/ 
we see that a person has been able to read 
mentally more than eight hundred words a 
minute and three hundred aloud. 

In resume : leaving aside the more espe- 
cially skilled professionals, those born blind 
write three times less quickly and read 
mentally at least five times less quickly 
than they who see; and as regards read- 
ing, the adult who loses his sight is far 
from being able to hope for such success. 
For hira the inferiority of Braille is the 
more wretched that he has been accustomed 
to read rapidly ; and above all to skim 
along, skipping words^ sentences, or whole 
pages. 

Historical. — Persons who wish details 
of the history of raised writing cannot 
do better than to begin by reading the two 
volumes in which M. Pagnerre has recently 
treated this subject. The manuscript with 

^ American Journal of Physiology, Vols. XI and XIL 



no ON BECOMma blind 

which M. Pagnerre has enriched the Braille 
library is in short orthography and dated 
1902. There is a resume of it in the ap- 
pendix of the volume published at the close 
of the International Congress for the 
Amelioration of the Lot of the Blind, held 
at Brussels in 1902. 

In 1820 Prony presented to the Academy 
of Sciences a report on a system of writing 
invented by Captain Barbier.^ At this 
time Barbier showed the superiority for the 
blind of a writing formed by raised dots. 
He produced this writing by means of a 
stylet guided, as is still done to-day, by the 
contour of a rectangular block. Under the 

1 " Rapport de Cuvier et Molard sur un Memoire de 
Charles Barbier," pamphlet in 18vo, pp. 24, to be found in 
the Braille Library, 31 Avenue de Breteuil, under No. 118. 
This pamphlet contains the reports made in 1820 by 
M. de Prony and in 1823 by M. Lacepede. 

Barbier, "Notice sur les salles d'asile, le retour a la 
simplicite primitive de la theorie alphabetique, I'instruc- 
tion familiere des enf ants du premier age, des aveugles de 
naissance et des sourds-muets. " 8vo. Bachelier, printer, 
and Hachette, in the Elementary Classical Library, Paris, 
1834. This work is also found in the Braille Library, 
and in that of the Institute, in a volume, " Melanges de 
statistique, " No. 259. 



READmO AND WRITING BRAILLE 111 

paper a plate carried a groove tlie use of 
which is transmitted even to our time, at 
least in France. 

Three years later MM. Ampere and 
Lacepede made a new report to the Insti- 
tute. Barbier had brought two blind per- 
sons knowing how to read by his system. 
Surprised by the excellence of the result, 
the commissioners had one of the two go 
out of the room, and dictated a sentence to 
the other. On his return the first read at 
once without hesitation the phrase which 
his companion had just dotted. Thus the 
raised writing and the means of tracing it 
regularly are the work of Barbier, who, be- 
sides, had arranged the grooved plate so as 
to be at once displaced to allow the blind 
writer to make his own corrections. Braille 
has besides given him full justice in closing 
the preface of one of his books with the 
following sentence,^ '^ Nous aimerons tou- 
jours a repeter que notre reconnaissance 

1 " Precede pour ecrire au moyeii de points," 2d edition, 
Imprimerie de I'lnstitution royal des jeunes aveugles. 
Paris, 1837. 



112 ON BECOMING BLIND 

appartient a M. Barbier, qui le premier a 
invent^ un precede d'ecriture au moyen de 
points, a I'usage des aveiigles." 

In the course of the twenty or twenty-five 
years which he devoted to perfecting raised 
writing, Barbier seems to have modified in 
several ways the disposition of the raised 
dots before determining on the square cell 
capable of receiving six dots. In a pamphlet 
to be had in the Braille Library, under 
No. 110 f. of the catalogue, there is a 
detailed explanation of the manufacture of 
Barbier tablets put at the disposition of the 
blind.^ I will confine myself to showing 
one of his dotted notations, from a picture 
and volume belonging to the collection of 
M. Boissicat, Treasurer of the National 
Institute of Paris. The impression is per- 
fect, and you will see that in this system an 
unlettered person can learn to read in a 
few hours. The corner-stone of this system 
is the following printed table, which must 

1 " Annales de I'lndustrie nationale et etrangere ou 
Mercure technologique." Bachelier, 55 quai des Augus- 
tins, Paris, 1822. 



READING AND WRITING BRAILLE 113 

be learned by heart, line by line. This 
labor of memory, the only one demanded 
by Barbier, is singularly facilitated by the 
logical and deductive arrangements of the 
letters written in the table, and which re- 
call the articulations of the celebrated 
Couen de Prepean, the father of French 
stenography. 

Table of Charles Barbier 



1st Line 


a 


i 





u 


e 


h 


2d Line 


an 


in 


on 


un 


eu 


ou 


3d Line 


b 


d 


g 


J 


V 


z 


4th Line 


P 


t 


q 


ch 


f 


s 


6th Line 


1 


m 


n 


r 


gn 


11 (soft) 


6th Line 


oi 


oin 


ian 


ien 


ion 


ien 



For the blind each sign is composed of 
two lines of dots parallel and vertical. The 
number of dots in the left-hand row gives 
the number of one of the six horizontal 
lines of the table, and the number of dots 
in the right hand line tells the rank in the 
horizontal line of the letter type. 

Here is the very sample given by Bar- 
bier : — 



114 ON BECOMING BLIND 



If he has taken pains the reader will be 
able to reconstruct the eight words of Bar- 
bier : — 

Le choz util n sore etr tro sinpl (Les 
choses utiles ne sauraient etre trop simples). 

This arrangement is manifestly not propi- 
tious to rapid reading, and if I am rightly 
informed Barbier first made trial of om* cell 
receiving only six dots. 

It is to Louis Braille^ pupil and later pro- 
fessor in the Institution in Paris, that we 
rightly attribute the choice of the combi- 
nations of six dots which constitutes our 
alphabet. 

To my mind this choice has not been as 
fortunate as it might have been. Braille 
had received only the quite rudimentary 
instruction which the state then gave to 
its blind. It required him to put to the 



READING AND WRITING BRAILLE 115 

service of an extraordinarily ingenious mind 
a rare patience to produce his systems of 
writing and musical notation. But obliged 
to draw everything from his own brain, 
the idea could not come to him of taking 
into account the necessities of other lan- 
guages than French, or of the way he ought 
to leave open for abbreviated forms. These 
different abbreviative processes, says M. 
Moldenhauer, were conceived in different 
countries without having regard to other 
languages.^ 

It is, then, to the adoption of orthographic 
writing by Braille that is due the heart- 
rending state of international relations be- 
tween the blind ; for the slowness of the 
Braille alphabet has been the Tower of 
Babel which has given rise to the confusion 
of national short forms, and I do not know 
a single blind person who can read two 
languages in short form. 

The following is the table in dots of 
Braille. You will notice that the second, 
third, and fourth lines are derived from the 

^ Compte rendu du Congres de Bruxelles, p. 162. 



116 



ON BECOMING BLIND 



first, which we will call the type line, by 
the addition of one or two dots. 

Table of Bkaille in Dots 



« 


• 
• 


«• 


• • 

• 


• 
• 


• • •• 


• • 


• •• 










• 
• 
• 


• • 
• 


• • • 

• • 


• 
• 


:: 

• 


• 
• • 

• 


• 
• 
• 


• 
• 








• • 


• 
• 
• • 


• • 

• • 


• 
• • 


• 

• 
• • 


• 9 
• 


• • 


• 

• • 

• • 


• 

• 
• • 


• 

• • 

• • 








• 


• 
• 


• • 


• • 
• 
• 


• 
• 
• 


• e 

• 
• 


• • 

• • 


• 
• • 

• 


.• 


• • 








• 


• 
• 


• • 


«« 

• 


•^ 


• • 
« 


• « 


• 

• 6 


• 
• 


• • 





Here now are the signs of printing or 
ordinary writing arranged in the same order 
as represented in the preceding table of 
dots : — 

Table of Braille in Type 



1st Line 


a 


b 


c 


d 


e 


f 


g 


h 


i 3 


2d Line 


k 


1 


m 


n 





P 


q 


r 


s t 


3d Line 


Ll 


V 


X 


J 


z 


Q 


e 


a 


e u 


4th Line 


a 


g 


i 


6 


u 


e 


i 


ti 


06 W 


5th Line 


) 


5 


: 


. 


9 


! 





(( 


? ?; 



READING AND WRITING BRAILLE 117 

By taking ten signs for his first line or 
type line. Braille had the advantage of being 
able to use this line as a whole for the ten 
ciphers. 

The study of this writing is facilitated by 
the fact that it is sufficient for the pupil to 
learn by heart, on the one hand, the form of 
the ten first signs in dots, and on the other, 
the order of the fifty signs in the printed 
table. For those who, like myself, learn 
Braille at an advanced age, this facility is 
appreciable, but for the ensemble of blind 
persons it is dearly paid for by its in- 
convenience. 

There is produced, in effect, in reading 
Braille, something analogous to what I have 
elsewhere pointed out in reading ordinary 
print. Cover the lower half of a printed 
line ; you will continue to read it without 
trouble, while you will be unable to make 
it out if you cover the upper half of the 
letters. Thus the glance of the trained 
reader passes along the heads of the letters, 
much more characteristic and varied than 
the bottoms. In the same way, when I 



118 ON BECOMING BLIND 

read raised writing, my finger grasps less 
the bases of the letters, and I chance to read 
a c instead of an m or an x. It is because 
the most sensitive area of the finger is less 
than the height of the common raised 
writing. I do not think I am alone in 
this. I believe, in fact, that the frequency 
of this inconvenience has had something to 
do with the creation of the New York point, 
in which the raised letters have only two 
dots in height, balanced often by having 
three in breadth. 

Take note that the table of Braille com- 
prises only fifty of the sixty-three signs 
which the rectangular cell may give. 

The orthographic writing of Braille gained 
ground, thanks to the influence of Drs. 
Guille and Pignier, Directors in the Insti- 
tute, and that of Guadet, professor in the 
Institute, who by his journal, B Instituteur 
des aveugles, served as a link between the 
school at Paris and the foreign schools. 

It seems to me that these men were not 
on the right road when they abandoned the 
phonography of Barbier. 



READING AND WRITING BRAILLE 119 

In the first half of the nineteenth century, 
without having any knowledge of the work 
of Barbier and Braille, an Austrian of the 
greatest merit, Klein, composed an alphabet 
formed by points legible by those who see 
as well as by the blind. The letters of 
Klein were five dots in height, which 
involved too great slowness in reading and 
especially in writing. 

The " trait point " of Dr. Vezien and the 
beautiful alphabet of Dr. Mascaro constitute 
raised writing easy at once for the blind to 
trace and for those who see to read. 

Everywhere else than in France they 
have replaced the grooves of Barbier by 
little cup-shaped indentations, which force 
the writer to hold his stylet quite perpen- 
dicular to the tablet, and as a result to form 
his dots correctly. Barbier had devised the 
grooves for reasons of economy in manu- 
facture, which do not hold to-day; and 
I recommend the beginner to avoid the 
tablets made in France, to be sure of getting 
the habit, which is so important, of holding 
the stylet quite perpendicular to the paper. 



XYII 

CORRESPONDENCE WITH PERSONS WHO 

SEE 

Two questions present themselves : to 
write without witness, and to obtain knowl- 
edge of the contents of a letter, while 
choosing the person by whom you have it 
read. 

For the first question, you have seen how 
I got round the difficulty by means of my 
writing planchette. Again, one may have 
recourse to typewriting, or even, with regu- 
lar correspondents, to Braille writing, on 
condition of having provided them with a 
model of the point alphabet. Those born 
blind can put on the address by using a 
special system serving to trace the usual 
characters in relief. For stamps, it is well 
to keep them sorted in a box with compart- 
ments, which you make recognizable by 

120 



CORRESPONDENCE 121 

marks. The letter once written, it is useful 
to carry it yourself to the mail without show- 
ing the address to any one, either by taking 
a guide, or, what is better, by learning to go 
alone to the nearest letter box. 

Receiving letters offers more difficulties. 
It took me two years, for instance, to learn 
that the blind ought always to open his 
letters himself. Before opening them he 
can be told if there are any external marks, 
showing whence the letter came, such as 
business heading or postal mark. The very 
feel of a letter often gives some information 
of its nature. A begging letter on thin, poor 
paper is not easily confused with a note from 
a lady in a glossed envelope, which is often 
recognizable by a crest in relief or by its 
perfume. Again, external signs may be 
agreed upon with a regular correspondent. 

The letter once opened, the touch may 
give definite information as to its nature ; a 
printed prospectus does not give the same 
feel under the fingers as does a calling card, 
and one will not confound a check with a 
letter of request. 



122 ON BECOMING BLIND 

If the blind man has any doubt, which is 
generally the case, he puts the letter back 
into the envelope, reserving to himself the 
choice of who shall read it to him. Once 
the letter is read, I do not fail to mark on it 
with points a sufficient indication to recog- 
nize it later, and know by whom to have it 
reread when the time for replying comes. 

I know one blind person who has his let- 
ters sent to him at the general delivery, 
then after getting the letter, he is driven in 
a cab to a remote quarter of town, where 
he has it read to him by a boy, who, not 
knowing him, can hardly commit the indis- 
cretion of acquainting the blind man's house- 
hold with what he would keep to himself. 

Another way : you know that Braille 
correspondence may go in the mail under 
wrappers at printed rates ; if the family of 
the blind man knows this writing, nothing 
is easier than to forego the lower rate and 
have his Braille letter sent to him under 
sealed postage. 

Finally, if the blind and his correspondent 
both know a common foreign language, the 



CORRESPONDENCE 123 

correspondent may write him in this tongue, 
taking care to make the letters of perfect 
legibihty. Thus I have myself written in 
German, recommending that Latin letters 
be employed. If, as an extra precaution, 
which is far from being indispensable, 
my correspondent takes the trouble to re- 
place the u by ou, the ie by i, any French- 
man can read me my letter in a perfectly 
comprehensible manner; all that is neces- 
sary for me is that he does not know 
German. 



XVIII 

MAPS, PLANS, AND SKETCHES 

To execute a large sketch formed only 
with points, one may use the writing tablet, 
or, better, special tablets with square equi- 
distant openings. 

In schools for the blind they use, to teach 
geography, maps stamped in relief on paper, 
or, better, on celluloid, on which the blind 
can very well find their bearings, thanks to 
the variety of more or less strongly marked 
lines, variously pointed, which show the 
boundaries, the rivers, etc. They have also 
made maps by embroidery on canvas, or 
on perforated card-board, made for Frobel 
schools, to be had in the stores. 

Stamped maps covered with details are 
hard to read, for one who has not been 
accustomed to them from childhood, and 
besides, one can rarely find ready-made 
maps filling a special or sudden need. Few 

124 



MAPS, PLANS, AND SKETCHES 125 

blind are subscribers to a German revue, 
published in shorthand, which gave, in con- 
nection with its articles on the Spanish- 
American and China-Japan wars, relief maps 
with the fields of battle, the ports, and cities 
designated. One has even less hope of be- 
ing able to get, ready-made, a plan of the 
city, the ward, or of the house wherein he 
lives. 

To meet this need the firm of Carriere, 
22 Rue Saint-Sulpice, Paris, has made at my 
request, with entire success, sheets of wax a 
little over a millimetre thick and measuring 
twenty by thirty centimetres. These sheets 
being transparent, nothing is easier than to 
make a relief map by placing them over the 
plan or map which interests the blind one. 
It is enough to apply over the lines which 
you wish to reproduce flexible wires, which 
the pressure of the finger embeds in the wax. 

The wires which serve the best for this 
purpose are of lead. Their cost is next to 
nothing and their flexibility perfect, while 
the softness is such that they can be broken 
between the fingers in any desired length. 



126 ON BECOMING BLIND 

To diversify the lines, wires of three thick- 
nesses may be used, varying from one to 
two millimetres. With the wires of about 
one millimetre you can make letters which, 
set in the wax, can be easily read by touch. 

To increase the variety of lines, you may 
use guitar strings, the sixth and seventh, 
which are both pliable and tough, the core 
being of silk and the winding of fine 
metallic wire. You can also use string or 
bits of wooden or wax matches. There is 
nothing to prevent marking various points 
by lead bird shot, glass beads, or, even 
better, tacks. 

The wax being very flexible, if you wish 
to keep the maps thus made, it is necessary 
to fasten them by tacks to thin, light boards 
of wood. You can use the same sheet of 
wax many times by taking out the em- 
bedded wires and smoothing out the sur- 
face with the thumb nail. 

The wax sheets serve me also to make 
sketches mj^self, which is done without diffi- 
culty. I use a rule divided into centimetres 
by little notches, a square, and a compass. 



MAPS, PLANS, AND SKETCHES 127 

M. Carl Schleussner, inspector at the Insti- 
tute for the Blind at Nuremberg, showed in 
1902, at Brussels, cotton thread covered with 
wax which he used to teach geometry. He 
was kind enough to send me a sample, which 
appeared to me perfect for making at once 
sensible the outlines of a map ; but after 
some months the threads were dried out, 
and had unfortunately lost the property of 
adhering to the paper. 



XIX 

MUSIC 

Happy the blind who have a taste for 
music, the only art within their reach. 
They find greater pleasure in it than the 
majority of those who have their sight. 
Accordingly, I shall not dwell on so evi- 
dent a truth. Happier still are they who, 
before losing their sight, knew how to play 
some instrument and have a memory fur- 
nished with a number of masterpieces. 

Persons who read rapidly before losing 
their sight are to be pitied, for music 
written in Braille can be read only very 
slowly, and naturally this reading leaves 
only one hand free. It takes the patience 
of one born blind to learn a piano piece, bar 
by bar, playing successively with the right 
hand and the left, while the finger of the 
other hand is passed along the signs repre- 
senting the notes. I doubt if an adult musi- 

128 



MUSIC 129 

cian becoming blind would ever have the 
patience to submit to such labor. Braille 
music writing, derived from the notation 
invented by J. J. Rousseau and which is 
in actual use at the Galin-Paris-Cheve 
school, is very remarkable. It is more 
rational than the usual music notation, 
takes no more space, and its cost is not 
excessive. 

If he is sufficiently gifted, an old musi- 
cian become blind can find the greatest 
pleasure in improvising. He can, with the 
help of some one who sees, or perhaps even 
with the aid of a phonograph, learn some 
pieces by heart; but if he learns Braille 
music, I doubt very much if he will get 
any profit from it, save in the most excep- 
tional cases. I fear that he will have to 
resign himself to leaving to those born 
blind the labor of profiting from this 
admirable invention. 



XX 

GAMES 

There is nothing to hinder a blind person 
from playing dominoes, chess, checkers, or 
cards, if he is gifted with a fair memory. 
If his memory is excellent, there is no trouble 
at all, since the great chess-players play with- 
out seeing the board, their adversary alone 
being with the board and making alternately 
his moves and those of the great player. 
Being endowed with a wretched memory, I 
cannot even play at dominoes, being unable 
to remember either what has been played or 
what dominoes I have in my hand. I have 
not even tried to play checkers or chess, for 
I am utterly unable to picture to myself the 
position of the pieces. 

For the majority of blind players the game 
of checkers or chess is made very easy by 
means of boards on which each square has a 
little hole to receive the peg with which the 

130 



GAMES 131 

checkers or chessmen are provided. These 
sets with holes and pegs are to be bought, 
for they were invented for playing on rail- 
way trains. It is easy to imagine the slight 
change necessary to make the black pieces 
recognizable from the white. For those who 
do not like the pegs there are special checker- 
boards made with the squares of one color 
set deeper than the others. At the muni- 
cipal school for the blind in Berlin, besides 
chess and checkers, there are loto, halma, 
etc. 

Since the blind person who plays draughts 
or chess is constantly passing his hands over 
the game, it is better for his opponent to have 
a separate board. 

There are playing cards recognizable by 
almost invisible needle pricks which give 
the blind the ability to play with those who 
see. One can get at the National Institute 
a little instrument for marking playing 
cards. 

A blind person can amuse himself with- 
out any modification with the games of 
solitaire, ring puzzles, and billard anglais. 



XXI 

TOBACCO 

One might think that the blind, not be- 
ing able to see the smoke, would experience 
no taste for tobacco ; it is an error. I can 
attest to numbers of persons born blind who 
smoke cigarettes, and of inveterate smokers 
become blind for whom a pipe or cigar is an 
almost necessary complement of a dinner. 
A blind man, perhaps more readily than one 
who sees, may let his cigar go out without 
at once perceiving it. I have no experience 
with cigarettes or pipe. If I suspect that 
my cigar has gone out, I close my hand 
around it without touching it, and if the 
cigar still burns, the radiating warmth is 
readily felt. 

For lighting I use coals, which are much 
more convenient than matches, for with 
these it is not easy to bring the end of the 
cigar in touch with the flame. 

132 



TOBACCO 133 

In my room I have ash trays placed here 
and there, m which, when I think of it, I 
put the ash to avoid letting it fall on the 
floor. At times, when moving about, I make 
use of one of the sputum flasks which are 
made for consumptives. With this in my 
pocket I can, wherever I may be, without 
incommoding any one, get rid of my ashes 
or the butt of my cigar, which, shut in the 
flask, goes out without spreading a bad odor. 

In short, it seems to me that the chief 
practical advice to give to the blind who 
wish to smoke, is to select very dry cigars, 
which alone can be smoked slowly without 
fear of their going out. Often a cigar 
serves me to measure time when, in the 
presence of a stranger, I do not wish to 
feel the time on my watch. 



XXII 

MEMORY AND MNEMONICS 

I EECALL having met, in my youth, wholly 
illiterate peasants whose memory seemed to 
me prodigious. They remembered year by 
year the character of the seasons. They 
knew the exact dates of small events in 
their life, and had stereotyped the exact re- 
membrance of their receipts and expendi- 
tures. The inability of preserving anything 
by writing, and the long hours of monoto- 
nous manual labor, when their mind dwelt 
leisurely on the past, recalled it to their 
memory and engraved it on their brain. 
Herein, if I mistake not, are the special 
conditions which lead to these phenomenal 
memories, which so astonish the neighbors 
who are more favored as regards primary 
education. 

The difficulty of taking notes and, above 
all, of consulting them, the long hours of 

134 



MEMORY AND MNEMONICS 135 

isolation, and absence of the distractions 
which the visible world brings, are analogous 
conditions, thanks to which a certain number 
of blind-born people become remarkable for 
their memory. 

With the blind, memory is necessary for 
many acts of daily Hfe. He needs more or 
less conscious memory to put his hand with- 
out hesitation on the door-knob, to give 
directions to the guide who takes him across 
the streets of the city, to know at a dinner 
the positions of the guests around the table. 
Many bhnd people make a very systematic 
use of their memory, and know, for instance, 
the number of steps in each portion of an 
accustomed walk, the number of treads in a 
stairway, etc. 

To write, as I do at this moment, being 
unable to make erasures, it is necessary to 
construct each sentence practically complete 
before beginning to write. You must know 
what you have put in the preceding pages 
in order to make a subsequent summary 
without need to have read to you what has 
been written. 



136 ON BECOMING BLIND 

In place of referring to documents which 
he wishes to use, the blind writer is obliged 
to make himself absolute master of them in 
advance; and if his memory is poor, the 
task becomes much more difficult and the 
work loses in precision and vivacity. This 
very book necessarily shows these diffi- 
culties. 

The feebleness of my memory obliged me 
to give special attention to the ways by 
which those who become blind late in life 
can clear themselves of these difficulties in 
personal work and not forget the engage- 
ments at fixed times in their daily life. 

Here the pointed writing is an inestimable 
help. The pocket tablet permits one to put 
a short note on the letters he receives, as 
well as on the larger envelopes where he 
keeps papers relating to the same subject, 
and on the edge of the largest cases in 
which he classifies the envelopes. It be- 
comes easy by this means, or by some simi- 
lar device, for him to find, himself, all the 
papers he has collected and to have read by 
some one those to which he wishes to refer. 



MEMORY AND MNEMONICS 137 

In a word, by perfect order and thanks to 
the help of raised writing, one can discount 
the weaknesses of the poorest memory. 

For one who loses his sight late, the 
attempt to better his memory is rather 
chimerical and illusory, since with almost 
every one the memory, particularly for recent 
events, grows steadily weaker. This is one 
reason the more for having recourse to a 
precious help which I set myself to use when 
I lost my sight, and the employment of 
which seems to me particularly valuable. 
I speak of mnemonics. 

I was present about 1862 at several meet- 
ings, where the extraordinary man who called 
himself Aime Paris expounded the rules of 
his Mnemotechny. 

I give the list which serves as a key to 
this mnemonic (persons who do not know 
Braille need only disregard the first line of 
the important table which follows) : — 

±bi JJiJNi. ^ •••••••••• 

2d Line 123 456 7 890 
3d Line te ne me re le che que fe pe se 
4:TH Line de gne je gue ve be ze 



138 ON BECOMING BLIND 

The first line contains the numerals in 
Braille, the second the same numerals in Ara- 
bic figures, the use of the third and fourth 
lines will be explained by the examples which 
will be given presently. 

The principle consists in replacing the 
numerals to be retained (taken in line 2), 
by a group of syllables (in line 3 or 4) 
whose assemblage makes a word which it is 
sufficient to remember. In place of remem- 
bering a number, it suffices to remember a 
word, and to recall this word it is necessary 
to associate it with the event whose date 
you wish to recall, by some phrase which 
Aime Paris prefers should be bizarre. The 
procedure not only serves to recall dates in 
history, but also telephone numbers, etc. 

Example : to remember the date of the 
founding of Rome, I confine myself to re- 
call '^ colline " by means of the idea that the 
city of Rome was built on seven hills. The 
word colline contains the articulation que, 
le, ne, which in the preceding table occupy 
respectively the places 7, 5, 2 ; I find 752, 
the date of the founding of Rome. 



MEMORY AND MNEMONICS 139 

Another example : to recall the date of 
the invention of spectacles, I remember that 
spectacles were invented for the old, for nos 
papas. The articulations 7ie, pe, pe give 
by their position 299, and as we know that 
spectacles do not date so very far back, we 
have the date 1299, the first figure not 
requiring to be formulated in the mnemonic. 

The mnemonic itself aids us in remember- 
ing in their order the ten syllables which 
form the key. Each one can devise a 
phrase, which he will recall the better the 
more silly it is. I imagine to myself, for 
instance, that I am going to seek my dog 
at the pound, he having been taken there 
because he was in the street without a muz- 
zle, and touching the nose of the dog I say 
to him : — 

Tu N'3iS Mis Bien Za, CHien Qui Fvls PinCe 
12345 6 7890 

It is perfectly silly, and the more ridicu- 
lous you find it, the more you will be forced 
to remember. After all, this mnemonic is 
no stranger than the one commonly used 
in France to recall the subprefectures, or in 



140 ON BECOMING BLIND 

Germany to learn the multiplication table. 
You will see later on, in the chapter on 
stenography, my scheme for using the same 
ten articulations in the same order to form 
the type line of stenography, the signs 
remaining in Braille and keeping their nu- 
merical significance. The result is that 
the mnemonic serves as an easy base for 
stenography. 

In mnemonics, as in stenography, the soft 
consonants correspond to the same order as 
the hard ; de comes from te ; je from che ; 
gue from que ; ve from fe ; he from pe ; and 
ze from se. Equally as in stenography, the 
mute consonants are considered as non- 
extant. By applying these two rules, if you 
wish, for instance, to recall the number 741 
you may make use indifferently of the words 
carte, garder, carder, carton, cordon, Corton, 
ecourter, encroute, garde, grade, agrandi, etc., 
which gives a large choice. 

A last example: to know by heart the 
perpetual calendar, Aime Paris gave very 
simple formulae. Here is one only, which 
gives the calendar of the current year: — 



MEMORY AND MNEMONICS 141 

You associate with the names of the days 
of the week, beginning with Sunday, the 
numbers, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; and to the 
months the following figures : for January, 
3 for February, 3 for March, 6 for April, 
1 for May, 4 for June, 6 for July, 2 for 
August, 5 for September, for October, 3 
for November, 5 for December. 

Let us suppose, to begin with, that the 
year begins on a Sunday. The numbers 
which have just been given show the day of 
the week with which the different months 
begin ; for example, the figure 3 which goes 
with the month of February indicates that 
the first of February is a Tuesday. Second 
example : the figure belonging to October 
shows that the month of October begins on 
Sunday, as does January. All these numbers 
attached to the different months are not 
hard to remember. If you wish a mnemonic 
to help, you can say : — 

Fevrier trois (le mois le plus etroit). 

Mars trois (meme chiffre que pour fevrier, ce qui 

est evident puisque le mois de fevrier est exacte- 

ment de 4 semaines). 



142 ON BECOMING BLIND 

Avril six (mois ou Ton fait des scies). 

Mai un (c'est de ce mois qu'a la campagne on plante 
a la porte du maire un mat qui porte le nom de 
mai et qui est droit comme le cliiffre 1). 

Juin quatre. 

Juillet six (il fait bon d'§tre Sissis sous les abres). 

Aout deux (il d'aout d'etre a d'eux). 

Septembre cinq (mois des chasseurs assassms). 

Octobre zero (forme de la premiere lettre du mot 
octobre). 

Novembre trois (le vin nouveau subit Voctroi). 

Decembre cinq (Noel tombe le vingt-cwtg). 

When the year does not begin on Sunday, 
it is necessary to add to the characteristic 
number of the month the number charac- 
terizing the day on which the year begins. 
In leap years it is necessary after February 
to add a day to all the numbers. 



XXIII 

ESPERANTO 

The great majority of educated and intel- 
ligent blind persons with whom I have had 
to do have resolved to learn Esperanto, so 
that the use of this admirable international 
language seems likely to spread much faster 
among the blind than among other men. 

It is polyglots who most appreciate Es- 
peranto, although one would have thought 
that the need of an international language 
would be least felt by those who already 
know several languages. This tendency 
of polyglots to adopt the auxiliary lan- 
guage devised by Dr. Samenhof carries great 
weight, for persons who know several lan- 
guages are alone competent to judge of the 
merits of a new idiom. The study of 
Esperanto, according to those who have 
devoted themselves to it, is very easy, and, 
contrary to Volapuk, the language is har- 

143 



144 ON BECOMING BLIND 

monious. By processes as simple as they 
are ingenious, Samenhof has reduced to an 
incredible minimum the mental effort requi- 
site for learning this language. What espe- 
cially distinguishes Esperanto is that, if one 
limits himself to knowing how to read with- 
out a dictionary (a prime point for the blind), 
he can attain this in a few days if he gives 
himself to it wholly. 

It seems to me that the usefulness of 
Esperanto ought to be much greater to the 
blind than to those who can see, and for 
two reasons. 

In the first place, the use of short form 
in almost all countries brings this distressing 
consequence, that the blind loses the chief 
profit of his knowledge of foreign languages. 
I read freely French, German, English, and 
Italian, and can make out with Spanish, 
Portuguese, and Dutch. All this, including 
what remains to me of my Greek and Latin, 
is lost if I have to read a foreign publica- 
tion printed in relief in short form. The 
difficulty of reading foreign tongues in short 
form is such that M. Monnier, Secretary of 



ESPERANTO 145 

the International Association of Blind Stu- 
dents, is obliged to request his correspon- 
dents to write out words in full, or to use 
Esperanto. I do not know that there is in 
Paris a single person who knows how to 
read short-form raised German. This is an 
intolerable condition. 

The second reason which makes desirable 
and probable the popularization of Espe- 
ranto among the blind is, that in each 
country the returns from books printed in 
raised type is too small to cover the cost of 
the publication. 

With Esperanto all is changed. It be- 
comes possible to print a weekly review for 
us, containing news of all kinds. We can 
be kept informed, among the productions of 
modern literature, of those works which, 
remarkable for their ideas or style, have 
been distinguished by the number of trans- 
lations made into other languages. The 
translation of "Hamlet" by Samenhof shows 
the suppleness of his auxiliary language. 

How should the blind set out to learn 
Esperanto? The reply to this question, 



146 ON BECOMING BLIND 

good at the time when I write these lines, 
would be wrong by the time they were 
read. The book at the head is the gram- 
mar of Samenhof, of which I know only 
the French translation. This grammar, 
with the exercises which accompany it, I 
recommend without any restriction. If it 
cannot be had in raised type, have it read 
to you. You will find readily for this ser- 
vice some one who wishes to learn Espe- 
ranto. For this work the association of 
two or more persons of whom one is blind 
is perfect. 

In any case, find out what may exist 
printed in raised points by blind Esperan- 
tists in the country where the blind person 
lives. 

In France M. Cart, professor at the Lycee 
Henri lY, one of the most zealous advo- 
cates of Esperanto, has published in raised 
points a resume of the grammar and part 
of the exercises of Samenhof . Do not use 
the publications of Cart until you have 
read from one end to the other the com- 
plete grammar. 



XXIV 

MARRIAGE 

Ought one to advise marriage for the 
blind ? 

It is not a question, be it well under- 
stood, of marriage between blind persons, 
which is contrary to the most ordinary 
good sense. It is the decision whether a 
blind man or woman should marry. 

In the vast majority of cases the mar- 
riage of blind persons is not contraindicated 
by any fear of the blindness being heredi- 
tary. Having been consulted on this matter 
as an occulist, I did not limit myself to 
my recollections as a practitioner. I went 
through, before giving my reply, the many 
biographies of blind persons which are given 
in Mell's dictionary, and these researches 
were in accord with my own remembrances, 
confirming, that if there are cases of heredi- 

147 



148 ON BECOMING BLIND 

tary blindness, they are so rare as to have 
escaped our investigations. 

Nevertheless, it does not follow that the 
physician should give his approval to every 
blind person who wishes to marry. For the 
blind who have lost their sight by accident 
the question of heredity does not come up 
at all ; besides, the vast majority of cases of 
blindness are to be looked on as accidental. 
Smallpox, ophthalmia neonatorum, which 
are even to-day the great sources of blind- 
ness, have nothing hereditary. But if the 
blind person who wishes to marry has lost 
his sight from an affection of the optic nerve, 
the choroid, or even the retina, some care 
should be taken. For example, I would 
oppose the marriage of a person who had 
lost his sight from detachment of the retina 
with one who had a strong myopia, and if, 
besides, there existed any strain of relation- 
ship between the two, my opposition to their 
marriage would be unremovable. 

Leaving aside, then, some quite exceptional 
cases, the physician ought not to oppose the 
marriage of the blind. 



MARRIAGE 149 

Once the medical question set aside, the 
other circumstances ought to be weighed 
with the greatest care. Unquestionably it 
is the rule, when the blindness comes on in 
the course of married life, especially if it be 
the husband who is stricken, to see the con- 
jugal affection deepened by compassion ; the 
blindness of one of the pair rarely fails to 
strengthen preexisting bonds. As to con- 
tracting a marriage, the question is quite 
different. It has been set forth in its vari- 
ous aspects in " Les Em mures," the beauti- 
ful novel of Lucien Descaves.^ 

As a fact, among the blind, the marriage 
of girls is much less frequent than that of 
men, which conforms to the psychology 
of the two sexes; and I believe that as a 
rule the matches thus made are success- 
ful. More frequently the young woman 
has known at the start the import of the 
engagement which she has undertaken, and 
the conditions of the contract being re- 
versed, she gives aid and protection to her 
husband. 

1 Stock, Paris, 1895. 



150 ON BECOMING BLIND 

It is a pleasure for me to close this chap- 
ter by the translation of a very beautiful 
letter sent me by one of my correspond- 
ents : — 

'^ Under many circumstances the decision 
will be dictated by the age, the health, the 
financial position, etc. Blind girls will 
generally do better to forego marriage. 
Margaret Wilhelm, the wife of a railroad 
crossing guard, has poured out her feel- 
ings in a poignant poem, ^L'alouette de 
Birchow.' A blind man who marries ex- 
poses himself to wretched moments ; it will 
be for him one of the saddest privations never 
to see the looks of his wife and children. 
He will often have the feeling of not being 
able to fill as he would like to the duties of 
a husband and father; he takes upon him 
burdens which the bachelor has not. Never- 
theless, marriage seems to me desirable when 
circumstances are favorable. Not only is 
feminine aid almost indispensable to him, 
but he has more than other men the need 
of living among beings whom he can call 
his own, in whom he can have confidence, 



MARRIAGE 151 

and who surround him with affection. 
Family hfe is for him a source of pure 
happiness. As for myself, I cannot think 
without gratitude of all the joys which I 
experienced in the midst of those who are 
dear to me." 

However that may be, before marrying 
the blind will do well, under pain of lament- 
able consequences, to have it considered 
twice by some devoted friends. 



XXV 

THE SIXTH SENSE 

It is not without apprehension that I 
have written the words the sixth sense at the 
head of this chapter, for it is very possible 
that the facts in question may be explain- 
able by the five senses. 

On the other hand, in the present state 
of our knowledge, it is doubtful whether 
the persons for whom this book is intended 
can draw any immediate or practical benefit 
from reading this exposition. Neverthe- 
less, it has seemed useful here to set forth 
the information I have been able to gather 
concerning "the sense of obstacles," in the 
hope that some one of my readers will be 
led to write me, for insertion in a second 
edition, the facts he may have observed or 
the experiments he may have made, the 
knowledge of which would be such as to 

152 



THE SIXTH SENSE 153 

extend the ideas we have of perceptions 
which the blind can make use of. 

Exposition of facts. — Every one who has 
carefully observed blind persons knows that 
there are among them some completely 
blind who have, more or less developed, 
what they call the sense of obstacles. One 
sees children run about in their play with- 
out bumping into trees ; this faculty is pres- 
ent with them even in a place where they 
find themselves for the first time. Walking 
in a passageway, they recognize without 
hesitation whether a door across their way 
is open. I am even assured that some of 
them have this sense sufficiently developed 
to allow them to count the windows of the 
first floor of a building which they are pass- 
ing in front of. This perception of obstacles 
makes one think of the experiment of the 
celebrated Spallanzani, who saw bats con- 
tinue to fly about, without striking them- 
selves, after he had taken out their eyes. 

The sense of obstacles is very clearly 
mentioned in a number of biographies 
of blind persons. The oldest description 



154 ON BECOMING BLIND 

which I know is found in Diderot's '^ Let- 
tres sur les aveugles." 

Most frequently the blind assert that the 
seat of the sensation which we are consider- 
ing is chiefly the forehead : they never 
speak of experiencing it in the hands. 
There are some who attribute the sense of 
an obstacle to the pressure of the air, 
which is incorrect, for those whom I have 
asked affirm that the perception is sharper 
when they approach slowly the object whose 
facial sensation gives them warning of its 
presence. This sensation is always vague, 
and according to the expression of some 
blind people subject to mirage; that is to 
say, they sometimes stop short in their walk 
with the fear of striking themselves, when 
they are not in the neighborhood of any 
obstacle. 

Before hazarding any explanation of 
these facts, I will say that the authors are 
far from being agreed : some tax their in- 
genuity to attribute them all to auditory 
sensations ; others do not allow the auditory 
sense any role in the process ; others admit 



THE SIXTH SENSE 155 

that the tympanum acts as a receptor with- 
out there being any auditory perception ; 
and finally, some blind people have told me 
that they believed in simultaneous action 
of auditory and other sensations, the respec- 
tive roles of which it was impossible for 
them to determine. 

First, the facts which I have been able 
to gather. The reader will please note the 
divergence of opinion on the effect of snow. 

M. G., Professor of History at the National 
Institute of Paris, lost his sight at the age 
of four years from atrophy of the optic 
nerves. Complete absence of smell. He 
distinguishes light from darkness and at 
times perceives dimly large objects. No 
perception from radium. A first-class ob- 
server, M. G. enjoys beyond possible ques- 
tion the sense of obstacles, thanks to which, 
for example, when going along a street, he 
is sure of not running into either trees or 
lamp posts in front. He avoids even in the 
country the large piles of stones along the 
roadside. He senses more than two metres 
away the presence of a wall. In my pres- 



156 ON BECOMING BLIND 

ence he recognized in the middle of a room 
a large piece of furniture which he thought 
was a billiard table. We determined that 
the mass of the object influences his percep- 
tion. A sheet of paper does not make the 
same impression on him as a thick book of 
the same form. He states that at home the 
sense of obstacles is much more distinct in 
complete darkness; there is, therefore, no 
possibility that the perception of large 
objects is due to the visual sense. For him, 
as for many others, the sense of obstacles 
disappears in noisy surrounding. 

Following this case, which I observed at 
first hand, here is one sent me by a very 
sagacious observer: — 

''1 know in my neighborhood a young 
man of twenty-seven, blind from the age of 
two, very intelligent, who has just finished 
his education and apprenticeship in the trade 
of a music tuner. He is his own guide and 
goes about alone on his routes. His village 
is four kilometres from mine ; when he 
comes to see me he walks very rapidly and 
without hesitation turns at a right angle 



THE SIXTH SENSE 157 

when he comes abreast of the road which 
leads to my house. It is the sense of hear- 
ing which leads him to avoid obstacles. 

" When there is a high wind shaking the 
leaves on the trees along the road, he some- 
times strikes against obstacles he would 
avoid in a calm. The confused noise of the 
foliage deadens the sound of his footsteps. 

" In the same way, when there is snow he 
does not hear any echo from the trees along 
the road, and he is obliged to strike his hand 
against his thigh to make a noise, the echo 
of which, sent back to him, reveals the 
neighborhood of obstacles. 

" I have made him try the following ex- 
periments : the first time I placed him in 
front of a wall and had him turn around 
several times and then asked him, ' Where 
is the wall?' He replied, ^Your voice is 
echoed back to me by the wall, which is 
there,' and he indicated very exactly the 
direction of the wall. 

^^ In a second experiment I placed myself 
between the blind fellow and the wall, after 
placing under his feet a carpet to deaden 



158 ON BECOMING BLIND 

strange sounds. I made him turn around 
several times after telling him to indicate to 
me the obstacle as soon as he should stop 
turning. Without waiting for my question 
he seemed to hesitate a moment. I had 
stopped him with his back to the wall. He 
replied, ' The wall is . . . behind me.' 

" I asked him the reason for the hesitation 
in his reply ? He said, ' At my first words, 
" the wall," I did not hear my words strike 
against an obstacle in front of me; so I 
concluded that the obstacle was behind me."' 

Another blind man of my acquaintance, 
who has difficulty in orienting himself when 
there is snow on the ground, has told me 
that he is much troubled in going about the 
house if he has on felt slippers. 

I take the following from a letter of 
M. Imbert, professor in the Faculty of Medi- 
cine at Montpellier : — 

"I have begun some experiments with 
a blind professor in the Institute of Mont- 
pellier, who has not the least light percep- 
tion. He acquainted me with a fact peculiar 
to himself, which I think will interest you. 



THE SIXTH SENSE 159 

M. Ferrari, the blind raan in question, during 
a thunder storm distinctly perceives a flash 
of lightning before hearing the thunder, 
and it has nothing to do with light percep- 
tion. M. Ferrari cannot otherwise charac- 
terize the sensation which he then has, but 
it exists and does not deceive him. This 
seems at first most hard to explain, but the 
explanation must be sought, I believe, in the 
known domain of physics, and ought to be 
in accord with the variations in the electric 
field which occur during a thunder-storm. 
In any case this explanation will be perhaps 
very hard to prove by experiment." 

This passage from M. Imbert is the most 
interesting since he is much given to ex- 
plaining by audition most phenomena which 
concern us. He has made experiments 
similar to those of William James, which 
will be spoken of farther on. 

I have kept for the last a much more 
complete case than the preceding ; that of 
W. Hanks Levy, cited by William James. ^ 

1 " Principles of Psychology." Macmillan & Co., Lon- 
don, 1891, Vol. II, p. 204. 



160 ON BECOMING BLIND 

A blind man, Mr. W. Hanks Levy, author 
of a work entitled "Blindness and the 
Blind," ^ tells us in the following manner of 
his faculty of perception : — 

" Whether within a house or in the open 
air, whether walking or standing still, I 
can tell, although quite blind, when I 
am opposite an object, and can perceive 
whether it be tall or short, slender or bulky. 
I can also detect whether it be a solitary 
object or a continuous fence ; whether it be 
a close fence or composed of open rails; 
and often whether it be a wooden fence, a 
brick or stone wall, or a quickset hedge. I 
cannot perceive objects if much lower than 
my shoulder, but sometimes very low objects 
can be detected. This may depend on the 
nature of the objects, or on some abnormal 
state of the atmosphere. The currents of 
air can have nothing to do with this power, 
as the state of the wind does not directly 
affect it ; the sense of hearing has nothing 
to do with it, as when snow lies thickly 
on the ground objects are more distinct, 

1 London, 1872. 



THE SIXTH SENSE 161 

although the footfall cannot be heard. I 
seem to perceive objects through the skin 
of my face, and to have the impressions 
immediately transmitted to the brain. The 
only part of my body possessing this power 
is my face ; this I have ascertained by 
suitable experiments. Stopping my ears 
does not interfere with it, but covering my 
face with a thick veil destroys it altogether. 
None of the five senses have anything to do 
with the existence of this power, and the 
circumstances above named induce me to 
call this unrecognized sense by the name of 
facial perception. . . . When passing along 
a street I can distinguish shops from private 
houses, and even point out the doors and 
windows, etc., and this whether the doors 
be shut or open. When a window consists 
of one entire sheet of glass, it is more diffi- 
cult to discover than one composed of a 
number of small panes. From this it would 
appear that glass is a bad conductor of 
sensation, or at any rate of the sensation 
specially connected with this sense. When 
objects below the face are perceived, the 



162 ON BECOMING BLIND 

sensation seems to come in an oblique line 
from the object to the upper part of the 
face. While walking with a friend in 
Forest Lane, Stratford, I said, pointing to 
a fence which separated the road from a 
field, ^ Those rails are not quite as high as 
my shoulder.' He looked at them and 
said they were higher. We, however, 
measured and found them about three 
inches lower than my shoulder. At the 
time of making this observation, I was 
about four feet from the rails. Certainly 
in this instance facial perception was more 
accurate than sight. When the lower part 
of a fence is brickwork, and the upper part 
rails, the fact can be detected, and the line 
where the two meet easily perceived. Ir- 
regularities in height and projections and in- 
dentations in walls can also be discovered." 
William James adds that with Levy the 
perception is diminished during a storm, 
but remains intact in darkness. (I know a 
blind man who is similarly affected.) He 
adds that Levy did possess the faculty of 
recognizing if a cloud obscured the horizon, 



THE SIXTH SENSE 163 

but thatj with him, this sensation, which 
exists in other bhnd persons, has wholly 
disappeared. 

The preceding facts are far from being 
numerous enough to put us in the position 
to grasp the mechanism by which the blind 
perceive the presence of obstacles. Never- 
theless, it is impossible to read them with- 
out thinking of the celebrated discussion of 
Lord Kelvin upon the six doors of knowl- 
edge.^ What follows is not in contradiction 
to the ideas of Lord Kelvin. 

Man possesses six senses and not five. 
It is not at all correct to put heat percep- 
tion into the ensemhle known under the 
name of tactile sense. The seat of these 
sensations is different, as proved by a disease 
of the spinal cord known by the name of 
syringomyelia, which shows itself by the 
loss of heat sensation with the preservation 
of the tactile sense. It requires the contact 
of ponderable bodies to give rise to auditory 
sensations in us, as sound is not transmitted 

^ William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), address given at 
the Birmingham and Midland Institute, October 3, 1883. 



164 ON BECOMING BLIND 

across a vacuum. It is probably the same 
with odors ; and touch properly so called, as 
its name indicates, is exercised only by con- 
tact. It is entirely different from vision, 
which renders perceptible the vibrations of 
a certain part of the spectrum. Besides, our 
skin is affected by invisible portions of the 
spectrum. The sunburn produced by re- 
flection from the snow or from the electric 
arc, and whose appearance is not often ac- 
companied by any sensation of warmth, is 
generally attributed to the action of the 
ultra-violet rays. On the other hand, and 
it is just this which interests us here, the 
infra-red rays produce a heat effect. 

The notion of radiant heat is common. 
A sensation of heat is experienced by our 
skin without its being in contact with a 
hot body. Who has not enjoyed the im- 
pression of warmth produced on our organs 
by a clear sun enlivening a beautiful summer 
day? Seated in front of a hearth in the 
coldest room, a bright fire can warm our 
face to such a point that it is pleasant to 
protect it with a screen. 



THE SIXTH SENSE 165 

If the frontal sense is a phenomenon of 
radiation, the subjects who possess it could 
increase it by blackening the forehead with 
lampblack. Every one knows that black 
clothes make us more sensitive to the solar 
radiation. 

It would be interesting to find out if 
obscure radiations do not play some part in 
the perception of obstacles by the blind. 
A fact cited by William James does not 
look favorable to this hypothesis : — 

" A blind man, Mr. Kilbourne, teacher in 
the Perkins Institute, South Boston, who 
possesses to a remarkable degree the power 
of perceiving clouds, has been found not to 
have on his face a sensibility to heat greater 
than other persons." 

But after trial made by closing the ears 
carefully, it was proven that with Mr. Kil- 
bourne the sense of obstacles rested upon 
auditory phenomena. 

To the preceding theoretic ideas, which 
differ little from those of Lord Kelvin, I 
will add that embryologically the retina is 
related to the cutaneous epithelium : one 



166 ON BECOMING BLIND 

may then conceive that this epithelium in 
the frontal region might be lightly affected 
by a certain extension of the spectrum 
whose limits are not the same as those of 
the luminous spectrum, and may even be 
very far distant from it. It was for this 
reason that I tried whether the skin of the 
forehead on blind persons would be affected 
by the rays emitted by radium. The result 
of this experiment, of which far too much 
noise was made in the papers, was negative.^ 

Practical application. — It would be per- 
haps useful, and surely interesting, to search 
for the means of calling forth and develop- 
ing in the adult this sense, which so far, it 
seems to me, has been the privilege of those 
who have lost their sight at an early age. 

As the first basis of this study it seems 
logical to find out the conditions most 
favorable for its exercise in those who pos- 
sess this perception. We would then try to 
place the adult under the same conditions. 

Unfortunately, the few facts which I have 

1 Vide Bulletin de I'Academie de Medecine de Paris, 
Stance of April 1, 1902. 



THE SIXTH SENSE 167 

gathered so far are neither precise nor in 
accord. 

A short while after losing my sight, as I 
heard this sense of obstacles spoken of, I 
made some trials to see if its application 
could be of some use to me. These trials 
gave a negative result, and by a rash gener- 
alization I came to believe that this sense is 
the privilege of those born blind, when I 
received from M. Leon, in whom this sense 
is strongly developed, a copy of James's 
book, already several times quoted, with the 
following passage marked : ^ — 

" The membrana tympani is susceptible 
of noticing di:fferences of pressure exerted 
by the external atmosphere, differences 
much too small to be possibly distinguished 
as a sound. After being seated and having 
the eyes closed, let the reader ask some one 
to bring silently before his face an object 
like a large book ; he will at once have a 
consciousness of its presence as well as of 
its removal. A friend of the author, trying 
this for the first time, distinguished without 

Loc. cit., p. 140. 



168 ON BECOMING BLIND 

hesitation the three degrees of thickness of 
a board, a trellis, and a sieve held succes- 
sively before his ear. Since they who see 
never make use of this sensation as a means 
of perception, we can admit that, for those 
v/hose attention is called to these phenom- 
ena for the first time, this appreciation is 
a quasi-sensation and owes nothing to the 
education of the senses. But what is per- 
ceived is very clearly and without denial 
the absence of limitation of space, quite as 
when lying on the back one perceives noth- 
ing but the blue and limitless extent of sky. 
When some one brings an object to our ear, 
we at once experience a sense of imprison- 
ment or shut-in-ness. If the object is sud- 
denly taken away, it seems as if we were 
freed and in the presence of free space. 
And to whomsoever takes the trouble to 
try it, this sensation will be that of a vague 
appreciation of space." 

William James adds this note : '' The 
proof that this sensation is tactile rather than 
acoustic seems to follow from the fact that 
a physician, a friend of the author, nearly 



THE SIXTH SENSE 169 

deaf in one ear, although the two tympana 
are normal, feels the presence or removal of 
an object as well with one ear as with the 
other." 

From these few lines I conclude that 
others more gifted maj^ succeed where I 
have failed. I point them out a subject 
for study. It is presumable that by vary- 
ing the nature of the objects employed one 
will be able to discover the most favorable 
conditions for the birth of the perception 
which is the subject of this chapter, and 
that, the first step being the hardest, these 
trials may terminate in results having a 
practical utility. 



XXVI 

PSYCHOLOGY OF THE BLIND 

Egoism and vanity are the prime motives 
of human actions : with the bhnd these 
faults sometimes assume excessive propor- 
tions. It is quite natural, indeed, that the 
blind, deprived of the most efficient means 
of self-defence, should be especially self- 
centred and preoccupied with the help that 
he can attract or demand from another ; that 
he should think more of himself than of 
others better armed for the struggle. The 
vanity which one often meets in him finds 
its chief nourishment in the wonder ex- 
pressed by those who notice every time he 
does anything alone. 

After all, is vanity a vice? Is it not 
rather a motive which often leads to well- 
doing ? That the blind should devote him- 
self to useful pursuits, that he should have 
the desire of working for another, that he 

170 



PSYCHOLOGY OF THE BLIND 171 

should provide for the needs of his family 
in spite of his infirmity and take pride in 
it, — where is the harm ? 

" The moralists have said, ' Choke out 
thy pride.' I say, 'Justify it; it is the 
secret of all great lives.' " ^ 

A characteristic trait of the blind is to 
reflect much, to ruminate, so to speak, on 
the past, and to draw logical deductions 
therefrom ; it is not uncommon, then, for a 
blind man to be a person of good counsel, 
above all if he has lost his sight late. 
Accordingly an intimacy between the blind 
and little children, so pleasant for him and 
profitable for them, is not a very rare sight. 

The blind are often encouraged by a very 
living religious faith. This is not surpris- 
ing, for, accustomed to accept the reality of 
things they do not see, they believe easily 
in the immediate presence of an invisible 
God and incline to a mysticism which can 
lift them away from the things of earth and 
humanity. 

When a young man first loses his sight, he 

1 Daniel Sterne, " Esquisses morales et politiques." 



172 ON BECOMING BLIND 

should be left in an asylum for the blind only 
for the time absolutely necessary. This very 
special surrounding is indeed particularly 
unsuited to the development of the qualities 
necessary for ordinary life. 

It has been interesting to me to inform 
myself on the inner life of the blind, and 
better than in special works ^ I have found 
these indications in the works of the realistic 
novelists. I have read with interest the 
" Musicienaveugle " by Korolenko/ and have 
quoted above with praise the "Emmures" 
of Lucien Descaves. 

Along a special line of ideas, the novel of 
Marc Monnier,^ " Entre Aveugles," presents 
the impressions of one born blind who has just 
received his sight as the result of an opera- 
tion. The writer was inspired by the cele- 
brated relation of Jurin, in the Optique de 
Smithy of the impressions of a blind man 

1 There is a long list in the " Encyklopadisches Hand- 
bnch des Blindenwesens," by Professor Alexandre Mell. 
2 vols, in 8vo, Pichler, Vienna and Leipzig, 1900. 

2 Volume of stories entitled " La Foret murmure," 
French translation. Armand Colin, Paris, 1895. 

8 " Le Charmeur." Charpentier, Paris, 1882. 



PSYCHOLOGY OF THE BLIND 173 

who had his sight restored to him some two 
hundred years ago by the oculist Cheselden. 
This observation has been related more or 
less completely in the works on physics, 
physiology, and psychology, notably in 
Helmholtz's " Optique physiologique." ^ 

Under the title of "Roman d'une aveu- 
gle," ^ M. Dufau, who was for a long while ^ 
Director of the Institute du boulevard des 
Invalides, has written a volume of fiction 
in which he has made use of observations 
gathered in real life. 

Most writers, and above all poets, who are 
blind make the mistake of trying to picture 
visual sensations which they know only by 
hearsay. M. Guilbeau, in his " Chants et 
legendes de I'aveugle," ^ avoids this error, 
and I will say as much of Mme. Galeron 
de Calonne, who is blind and almost wholly 
deaf. I cannot resist the pleasure of quot- 
ing a few stanzas from this remarkable 
woman.* 

1 Translation by Javal and Klein. Masson, Paris, 1878. 

2 " Le roraan d'une aveugle-nee." Paris, 1851, k I'lnsti- 
tution nationale. ^ Paris, 1894. 

* " Dans nia nuit," Alfonse Lemerre, Paris, 1897. 



174 ON BECOMmG BLIND 



" Quand le sommeil beni me ramene le r§ve, 
Ce que mes yenx jadis ont vu, je le re vols ; 
Lorsque la nuit se fait, c'est mon jour qui se leve, 
Et c'est mon tour de vivre alors comme autrefois. 

" fitres raal definis, clioses que je devine, 
Tout cesse d'etre vague et vient se devoiler, 
C'est la lumiere, c'est la nature divine, 
Ce sont des traits ctieris que je peux contempler. 

" Et quand je me reveille encor toute ravie, 
Et que je me retrouve en mon obscurite, 
Je doute et je confonds le r§ve avec la vie : 
Mon cauchemar commence a la realite.'' 



QU'lMPORTE 



" Je ne la vois plus, la splendeur des roses, 
Mais le ciel a fait la part de cbacun. 
Qu'importe I'eclat ? J'ai I'ame des choses ; 
Je ne la vois plus la splendeur des roses ; 
Mais j'ai leur parfum. 

" Je ne le vois pas ton regard qui m'aime 
Lorsque je le sens sur moi se poser. 
Qu'importe ! un regret serait un blasphemSo 
Je ne le vois pas ton regard qui m'aime. 
Mais j'ai ton baiser.'' 
****** 



PSYCHOLOGY OF THE BLIND 175 

That is something above the common, 
and the example of this beautiful serenity 
ought to bring shame to those whom the 
loss of sight plunges into a gloomy despair. 
Each one willingly believes that blindness is 
a much greater misfortune for him than for 
his neighbor. Instead of comparing our lot 
with that of those who can see, would we not 
do better to turn our thoughts toward those 
who in their night are delivered at the same 
time over to deafness, to the wretchedness 
of dark and solitude ? 

Near the beginning of ^'Stello" some lines 
justify the prejudice that the blind are hap- 
pier than the deaf. They are : — 

" If the deaf seem to us always gloomy, 
it is because we only see them at the time 
when they are deprived of the speech of 
men ; and if the blind appear always happy 
and smiling, it is because we see them at the 
time when the human voice consoles them." 

I share fully the opinion of Alfred de 
Vigny. The difference of which he speaks 
is still more marked if it concerns persons 
who have lost a sense they previously en- 



176 ON BECOMIKG BLIND 

joyed. Deafness does not wreck a man's 
career as does blindness ; it leaves him free, 
while the blind man is at the mercy of some 
one else. The deaf man can let himself be 
morose ; the blind man is obliged to appear 
amiable. One may say, then, that if the blind 
is more affable than the deaf man, if he tries 
to appear contented, if he is sociable, this is 
rather the index of the fear he has of being 
left alone in his darkness. 

I should admit that a contrary opinion 
has been expressed to me by Mme. Galeron 
de Calonne, whose blindness and deafness 
go back to the age of five years. I attrib- 
ute her opinion to the fact that her deaf- 
ness, not being absolute, she is daily im- 
pressed by the imperfection of her hearing.^ 



1 Mme. Galeron, during a few months when her deaf- 
ness was total, communicated with her husband by means 
of the signs of the Morse alphabet. This communication 
took place in certain instances without the knowledge of 
assistants or even at a distance, by jogging a table. Inter- 
course with people being possible to her only by contact, 
she has acquired an extraordinary memory of various 
hands and come to recognize in this way a person after sev- 
eral years' interval. One of her daughters had the idea 



PSYCHOLOGY OF THE BLIND 177 

Among men who are free from material 
anxieties, those who have never taken 
thought save of their pleasm-es and their 
own affairs are the most unhappy when they 
lose their sight. By a sort of distributive 
justice, those, on the contrary, who have set 
before them as the chief aim of life to con- 
tribute to the extent of their power to the 
general progress, find resources in them- 
selves ; every one, whatever his social posi- 
tion and his intellectual faculties may be, 
can always find satisfaction in contributing 
to the happiness of another. 

Men of science occupy a privileged posi- 
tion ; they have, in fact, a whole fund of ac- 
quired knowledge which they can make use 
of. So long as they can still bring their 
stone, however small it may be, to the 
building of civilization and progress, they 
feel that they live ; and whatever be the 
wounds received, they are not hors de com- 
hat, — the inequality of arms only increases 

of speaking to her into her hand, and she succeeded in 
thus getting several words, probably by feeling the move- 
ments of the lips and the expired air. 



178 ON BECOMING BLIND 

their ardor. More happy still if, by in- 
crease, their work having been of use to 
some one, they can repeat with serenity the 
words of Ecclesiastes, "My heart rejoiced 
in all my labor ; and this was my portion 
of all my labor." 



XXYII 

USEFUL ADDRESSES 

In all countries one necessarily goes to 
the special schools for the blind to obtain 
most articles useful for the blind, such as 
tablets, soft paper, maps, games, etc. 

Thus one finds at the National Institu- 
tion in Paris, 56 Boulevard des Invalides, 
rules, tablets, styles, cubarithmes, paper, and 
a certain number of classic books, all at a 
price given in a printed catalogue. 

The so-called Prague tablet can be had 
at the K. K. Institute for the Education 
of the Blind, 1| Wittelbachstrasse, No. 5, 
Vienna, Austria. The price is 4.50 marks. 

The Institute at Berlin is particularly 
well supplied with games. 

There are, besides, special associations for 
the help of the blind, such as the Associa- 
tion Valentin Hatiy, 31 Avenue de Breteuil, 
Paris; the British and Foreign Blind Associa- 

179 



180 ON BECOMING BLIND 

tion, 33 Cambridge Square, W., London ; the 
International Association of Blind Students, 
10 Champel, Geneva ; tke special establish- 
ment of Dr. Sommer, 7 Greves Garten, 
Bergedorf, near Hamburg, Germany, where 
one is sure to meet with a cordial reception. 

A catalogue of books in raised points can 
be had at the British Association and at 
the Association Valentin Hatty. The first 
sends, on request, a catalogue of the articles 
it has on sale ; the second has organized a 
service for lending books, with stations in 
several cities. From them one can get, be- 
sides the works of M. de la Sizeranne, the 
book of Captain Mouchard for the use of 
adults who wish to learn Braille alone, and 
that of Dr. Javal for the study of shortened 
form. 

Hotels recommended for the blind are: 
in Paris, the furnished apartments at 4 Rue 
Bertrand, quite near the Institute (7 francs 
a day) ; and in London the pension of Miss 
Blott, 30 Saint Charles Square, North Ken- 
sington, London, W. (150 francs a month). 

"Watches for the blind can be had, in 



USEFUL ADDRESSES 181 

Paris, of Ledeux, Place Saint- Andre-des-Arts 
(30 francs), and of Hass, Boulevard Sebasto- 
pol; in Strasburg, of Biettner Oscar, Alter 
Fleischmarkt, 40. 

Tandem tricycles are sold at the Societe 
FranQais, 16 Avenue de la Grande Armee 
Paris (600 francs). 

Wax tablets are made by the firm of 
Carriere, 22 Rue Saint-Sulpice, and 54 Rue 
de I'Abre Sec, Paris. 

"La methode de lecture" (honored by 
the highest award at the Exposition of 
1889) is sold for 0.30 franc at Picard and 
Kaan's, 11 Rue Soufflot, Paris. 

Finally, one can get the planchette for 
writing from Giroux, 19 Rue de I'Odeon, 
Paris (40 francs). 



APPENDIX 

BOOKS AND LIBRAEY FACILITIES FOE 
AMEEICAN EEADERS 

The institutions for the blind in the various states 
of the Union, while maintained chiefly for the care 
and education of the young blind, will all give in- 
formation to adult persons becoming blind as to the 
means at their disposal for teaching them to read, 
and can direct such persons how to obtain books 
and appliances. 

The American Printing House for the Blind, 
Louisville, Ky., publishes a very considerable list 
of school books upon all subjects, as well as volumes 
on general literature, history, poetry, science, and 
embossed music. These volumes are printed in Line 
letter, New York Point, and American Braille. 
They also have appliances for the use of the blind 
in writing, etc. 

A full catalogue is published, and also an em- 
bossed price-list can be had for twenty-five cents. 

The Society for providing Evangelical Eeligious 
Literature for the Blind, 3518 Lancaster Avenue, 
Philadelphia, Pa., publishes a number of volumes 
of religious writings and also a Sunday-school 
weekly in two editions, one in Line, and one in 
182 



APPENDIX 183 

New York Point. Upon the written recommenda- 
tion of a superintendent of the Sunday-school for 
the blind a copy may be sent free to any indigent 
worthy blind person in the state of Pennsylvania. 

The Perkins Institute for the Blind, in South 
Boston, Mass., has a salesroom at 383 Boylston 
Street, Boston, where supplies may be had. At the 
Institute in South Boston there is a large library 
from which books are lent to be read at home. 
The librarian. Miss Lane, will gladly answer any 
questions about the use of this library. 

The Perkins Institute also sends free of charge, 
to any one in Massachusetts, upon application, 
teachers to instruct in reading. These teachers are 
blind themselves, and are sent, men for men, and 
women for women. 

The general library facilities of the United 
States are the more available to the blind who 
may not have direct access to a library by reason 
of the following order of the Post-office Depart- 
ment, made for the benefit of the blind who may be 
entitled to borrow books from any institution for 
the blind or from any library containing embossed 
books. 

"order of the postmaster-general 

" Office of the Postmaster-general, 
"Order No. 541. " Washington, D.C., June 2, 1904. 

"Chapter 2, Title III, of the Postal Laws and 
Regulations, is hereby amended by the addition of 
the following subdivision : — 



184 APPENDIX 

"v. READING MATTER FOR THE BLIND 

" Sec. 5181 Books, pamphlets, and other reading 
matter in raised characters for the use of the blind, 
whether prepared by hand or printed, in single 
volumes, not exceeding ten pounds in weight, or in 
packages, not exceeding four pounds in weight, and 
containing no advertising or other matter whatever, 
unsealed and when sent by public institutions for 
the blind, or by any public libraries, as a loan to 
blind readers, or when returned by the latter to 
such institutions or public libraries, shall be trans- 
mitted in the United States mails free of postage, 
and under such regulations as the Postmaster- 
general may prescribe. (Act of April 27, 1904.) 

" 2. Eeading matter in raised characters for the 
use of the blind, to be entitled to transmission in 
the mails free of postage, must not contain any 
advertising or other matter whatever, and must in 
every case be sent by or returned to a public library, 
or public institution for the blind. 

'^ 3. When mailed by a public library, or public 
institution for the blind, the matter must be sent 
as a loan to a blind reader. When mailed for re- 
turn to a public library, or public institution for the 
blind, the sender must be a blind reader. 

" 4. The matter must be wrapped so that it may 
be easily examined. 

"5. No package is to weigh more than four 
pounds, except in case of a single volume, and it 
must not exceed ten pounds in weight. 



APPENDIX 185 

" 6. On the upper left-hand corner of the envelope 
or wrapper containing the matter the name and ad- 
dress of the sender must appear, and on the upper 
right-hand corner the word ^ free ^ over the words 
^ Reading matter for the blind.' 

"Note. — Letters written in Point print or raised charac- 
ters used by the blind are not included in the reading matter 
entitled, under the provisions of this section, to free trans- 
mission in the mails. (See section 475.) 

"H. C. Payne, 
" Postmaster-generaV 

The usefulness of the libraries in the large cities 
is thus greatly extended. Some of the chief pro- 
visions made for the blind are : — 

The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., main- 
tains a large airy reading-room on the ground floor. 
There are 834 books, grouped as follows: New 
York Point, 434 ; Line type, 357 ; American Braille, 
35 ; and Moon type, 8. There are eight magazines 
and also embossed music. Books and music are 
delivered and exchanged at the homes of the blind, 
but are not loaned to persons living outside the 
District of Columbia. 

The Boston Public Library has a good many 
volumes in Braille, New York Point, and some in 
Moon type. They take three magazines published 
in England for the blind. All the volumes are 
kerpt in the stack, as the use of them when kept on 
the tables in the reading-room was very limited. 



186 APPENDIX 

These books for the blind may be kept by borrowers 
for four weeks, double the usual time allowed. 

The magazines are : Recreation, edited by Florence 
Kevill, Braille. Progress, edited by George W. 
Boyle, Braille. Hoi^a Jucunda, edited by W. N. 
Illingworth, Edinburgh, Braille. 

The New York Public Library has in its Circu- 
lating Department a branch for the exclusive use 
of the blind. This was established in 1895 as an 
independent organization, the New York Free 
Circulating Library for the Blind, and came into 
the control of the Public Library by consolidation 
in January 1, 1903. The branch now has on its 
shelves 2365 volumes, of which 161 were added the 
last year. The circulation for the last library year 
was 8057, and the whole number of names of users 
on the registry book is 319. The staff of the branch 
includes a teacher whose business it is to seek out 
blind persons who do not know how to read and 
give them instruction free of charge. The books 
are chiefly in New York Point, though there are 
many also in the Moon system, Boston Line, Braille, 
and others. Pending the completion of the new 
library building, this branch is situated in a room 
in the Parish House of St. Agnes Chapel in 91st 
Street. The books are lent free to all residents of 
New York City. 

The Pennsylvania Home Teaching Society and 
Free Circulating Library for the Blind was founded 
in 1882, with the object of providing a library of 



APPENDIX 187 

embossed books in the Moon type, and sending 
teachers to the homes of the blind for the purpose 
of teaching them to read, and periodically exchang- 
ing their books. For sixteen years the work was 
most successfully carried on in Philadelphia, under 
the superintendence of Mr. John P. Ehoads ; but 
in order to place it upon a more permanent basis, 
the Society was reorganized in 1898, and the Trustees 
of the Free Library of Philadelphia have undertaken 
to cooperate with them, by taking charge of the 
library of embossed books belonging to this society 
for the blind, as well as consenting to superintend 
the loaning of the books to the blind upon the 
Society's roll of readers, all expenses connected 
with the home teaching part of the work and the 
circulation of books outside of Philadelphia being 
borne by the Home Teaching Society. 

The library of embossed books has been trans- 
ferred to the Free Library, 1217-1221 Chestnut 
Street, Philadelphia, where the books are kept in 
a room especially set apart for the purposes of this 
work. The room is also open to the blind as a 
reading-room, and such persons are welcome to the 
free use of the library. Those who live in Phila- 
delphia or its vicinity will be taught at their homes, 
without charge, by the visitors engaged by the Home 
Teaching Society for that special purpose. 

An embossed alphabet and a first-lesson sheet 
will be forwarded upon application. 

The Department for the Blind in the Free Library 



188 APPENDIX 

of Philadelphia has a circulating library of over 
1700 volumes in the five types most used : Ameri- 
can Braille, Braille, Line letter. Moon, and New 
York Point. The books in Moon type belonging 
to the Pennsylvania Home Teaching Society may 
be sent as loans to blind readers throughout the 
United States. Applications for the loan of em- 
bossed books should be made to Mr. John Thomson, 
Librarian, Free Library of Philadelphia, 1217 Chest- 
nut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 

The Chicago Public Library has about 800 volumes 
printed in Moon, in American Braille, and American 
Line. These books may be taken for home use. 
There is also a special room for blind readers in 
the main library, " but it is little used." The cir- 
culation is about 1500 volumes a year, chiefly 
through the delivery stations. 

The San Francisco Public Library has no formal 
provision for the blind, but one of its rooms in the 
Phelan Branch Library, Fourth and Clara Streets, 
is occupied by an organization of ladies under the 
name of the Eeading-room for the Blind. 

Books in English Braille may be obtained from the 
British and Foreign Blind Association, 206 Great 
Portland Street, London, W. 



The following is the list of all the institutions for the 
blind in the various states. One can obtain information 
about books and appliances in each city by writing to the 
institution named. 



APPENDIX 



189 



Alabama 


Talladega 


Arkansas 
California 


Little Rock 
Berkeley 


Colorado 
Connecticut 


Colorado 
Springs 
Hartford 


Florida 


St. Augustine 


Georgia 
Illinois 


Macon 
Jacksonville 


Indiana 


Indianapolis 


Indian Ter- 


Fort Gibson 


ritory 
Iowa 
Kansas 


Vinton 
Kansas City 


Kentucky 


Louisville 


Louisiana 
Maryland 


Baton Rouge 
Baltimore 


Massachusetts 


Boston 



Academy for the Blind 

School for Negro Deaf- 
mutes and Blind 

School for the Blind 

Institution for the Edu- 
cation of Deaf, Dumb, 
and Blind 

School for the Deaf and 
Blind 

Nursery and Kindergar- 
ten for Blind 

Institution for Deaf and 
Blind 

Academy for the Blind 

Institution for the Edu- 
cation of the Blind 

Institute for the Educa- 
tion of Blind 

International School for 
Blind 

College for the Blind 

Institution for the Edu- 
cation of the Blind 

Institution for the Edu- 
cation of the Blind 

Institution for the Blind 

School for the Blind 

School for the Colored 
Blind and Deaf-mutes 

Perkins Institute for the 
Blind 

Association for promoting 
the Interests of the 
Adult Blind. — Agent, 
C. F. F. Campbell, 
Broadway, Cambridge, 
Mass. 



Michigan 


Lansing 


School for the Blind 


Minnesota 


Faribault 


School for the Blind 


Mississippi 


Jackson 


Institute for the Blind 


Missouri 


St. Louis 


School for the Blind 


Montana 


Boulder 


School for the Deaf and 
Blind 


Nebraska 


Nebraska City 


Institution for the Blind 


New Mexico 


Santa F^ 


Institution for the Deaf, 
Dumb, and Blind 


New York 


Batavia 


State School for the Blind 




New York City 


Institution for the Blind 


North Carolina 


Raleigh 


Institution for the Deaf, 
Dumb, and Blind 


Ohio 


Columbus 


Institution for the Edu- 
cation of Blind 


Oklahoma Ter- 


Guthrie 


Institution for the Deaf, 


ritory 




Dumb, and Blind 


Oregon 


Salem 


Institute for the Blind 


Pennsylvania 


Philadelphia 


Institution for the Blind 




Pittsburg 


Institution for the Blind 


South Carolina 


Cedar Springs 


Institution for the Edu- 
cation of the Deaf, 
Dumb, and Blind 


South Dakota 


Gary 


"A School" 


Tennessee 


Nashville 


School for the Blind 


Texas 


Austin 


Institution for the Blind 
Institution for the Deaf, 

Dumb, and the Blind 

Colored Youth 


Utah 


Ogden 


University of Utah— De- 
partment for Blind 


Virginia 


Staunton 


Institution for the Edu- 
cation of the Deaf, 
Dumb, and Blind 


Washington 


Vancouver 


School for Defective 
Youth 





APPEI^ 


MX 191 


West Virginia 


Romney 


School for the Deaf and 
Blind 


Wisconsin 


Janesville 


School for the Blind 


Wyoming 


Cheyenne 


Institution for the Blind 
and Deaf and Dumb 



Massachusetts is the only state which has yet 
taken up the interests of those who have become 
blind after the years of childhood. The Massachu- 
setts Association for Promoting the Interests of 
the Adult Blind was established in 1903, with the 
object of helping the adult blind to help themselves. 
While awaiting the final report of a state commis- 
sion appointed as a result of its labors by the gov- 
ernor "to investigate the condition of the adult 
blind," the Association has continued its work of 
giving and receiving information as to the needs 
and capabilities of the blind ; and has established 
an experiment station to find and test industries 
and processes which seem practicable for the blind. 



THE OPHTHALniC PATIENT 

A MANUAL OF THERAPEUTICS AND NURSING IN EYE DISEASE 

By PERCY FRIDENBERG, M.D. 

ophthalmic Surgeon to the Randall's Island and Infants' Hospitals, Assistant 
Surgeon New York Eye and Ear Infirmary 

Cloth. i6mo. $i.oo net 

" The author aims to explain the principles and to describe the various procedures 
and appliances of ophthalmic nursing, the technique of operative assistance, and the 
nature and use of ocular remedies, as exemplified in private practice as well as in 
the established routine of well-equipped institutions. The book is intended to serve 
as a practical guide to physicians, students, an 1 nurses who lack special training in 
the care ot ophthalmic cases, as well as to supplement the invaluable routine of the 
ward and the training-school with theoretical instruction. The author has thought it 
advisable to lay most stress on actual nursing, and to treat of the topics of pathology, 
symptomatology, and diagnosis only in so far as it was necessary to elucidate his own 
theme, for this volume is in no way a treatise on diseases of the Eye." — From the 
Preface, 



DEFECTIVE EYESIGHT 

THE PRINCIPLES OF ITS RELIEF BY GLASSES 

By D. B. ST. JOHN ROOSA, M.D., LL.D. 

Cloth. i6mo. $i.oo net 

This treatise takes up all conditions requiring the use of glasses, and indicates in 
the most careful manner the indications and rules for describing them. It is well 
known that the author is a conservative in regard to the value of glasses, believing 
that there is a limitation to their use, and that they ought not to be prescribed unless 
of positive value. No pains have been spared to make the manual a complete guide 
to the practitioner who wishes to understand and practise the rules for the prescrip- 
tion of lenses for the improvement of impaired sight. The book may also be interest- 
ing to educated men in all departments of life, who desire to be informed as to 
advances that have been made in this interesting subject — one which concerns such 
a large proportion of the human race. 



HANDBOOK OF OPTICS FOR 
STUDENTS OF OPHTHALHOLOGY 

By WILLIAM NORWOOD SUTER, B.A., M.D. 

Cloth. i6mo. $i.oo net 

" Simplicity has been sought so far as this is not incompatible with thoroughness. 
But the demonstrations, some of which may appear formidable to the student, require 
no knowledge of mathematics beyond that of simple algebraic equations and the 
elementary truths of geometry. For those who may not be familiar with the trigo- 
nometrical ratios, a brief synopsis has been furnished in an appendix." — From the 
Preface. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

64-66 FIFTH AVENUE, HEW YORK 



THE EYE , 

ITS REFRACTION AND DISEASES 

The Refraction and Functional Testing of the Eye, Complete 
IN itself, in Twenty-eight Chapters, with Numerous Ex- 
planatory Cuts and Diagrams 

By EDWARD E. GIBBONS, M.D. 

Assistant Surgeon of the Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital ; Demonstrator and 

Chief in Cli7iic of Eye and Ear Diseases in the University of 

Maryland, Baltimore 

Cloth. 8vo. $5.00 net 

" The author has attempted in the pages of this work to supply students 
of ophthalmology with the practical information needed upon the various 
subjects treated. 

" The deductions of the various formulae used in optics have been simpli- 
fied and inserted. It is customary to omit the mathematics of the subject 
from treatises of this kind, but the author feels that the student should be 
familiar with the physics involved for the proper understanding of the sub- 
ject. The scope of the work precludes as frequent reference to authors as 
the writer would like. The author feels that the new material and diagrams 
the work contains justify its publication, so offers no apology for adding one 
more to the numerous books upon the same subject." — From the Preface. 



THE REFRACTION OF THE EYE 

INCLUDING A COMPLETE TREATISE ON OPHTHALMOME- 
TRY; A CLINICAL TEXT-BOOK FOR STUDENTS AND 
PRACTITIONERS 

By EDWARD DAVIS, A.M., M.D. 

Cloth. 8vo. $3.00 net. With 119 Engravings, 97 of 
which are original 

The author outlines a routine method of examination to be followed in 
every case. Each step of the examination that is necessary to be made in 
fitting a patient with glasses is described in detail. With the use of the 
ophthalmometer to detect the corneal astigmatism, and by following this 
routine method of examination, spasm of accommodation, if present, can, 
in the great majority of cases, be overcome, and if not present, the liability 
of causing it avoided. Thus the use of a mydriatic is rendered unnecessary, 
except on rare occasions — in not more than one per cent of all cases of 
errors of refraction. 

The entire subject of the refraction of the eye is treated in this volume. 
A feature of the book is a report in full of one hundred and fifty clinical 
cases, illustrating practical points in the fitting of glasses and in the use of 
the ophthalmometer. Many diagrams are used to show the focus of the 
principal meridians of the eyes, so that the merest tyro must understand them. 

The most complete and detailed description of the ophthalmometer, 
together with concise and definite rules for its use, are given. These rules 
contain the best practical directions for using the instrument accurately, and 
by their aid alone the careful student will learn to use the instrument correctly. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

64-66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



a ]m^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



021 930 434 1 



